IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp18275.html

Ethnic Wage Differences in Aotearoa New Zealand

Author

Listed:
  • Maré, David C.

    (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Trust)

  • Benison, Thomas

    (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research Trust)

Abstract

Ethnic wage gaps are a substantial and persistent issue in New Zealand. Understanding the drivers of such gaps is key to understanding the economic, social, and institutional factors that contribute to labour market inequality and to identifying measures to reduce gaps. Using household survey data from 2009 to 2023, this study implements a version of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method to examine the sources of ethnic wage gaps in New Zealand. Our results confirm the pattern of disadvantage previously documented for non-European ethnic groups. Differences in demographic, educational, and job characteristics account for substantial portions of the wage gaps for M?ori, Pacific, and European groups. After accounting for differences in mean characteristics, sizeable wage gaps remain, providing insight into the degree of ethnic labour market disadvantage that is due to unobservable characteristics or broader systemic factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Maré, David C. & Benison, Thomas, 2025. "Ethnic Wage Differences in Aotearoa New Zealand," IZA Discussion Papers 18275, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18275
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp18275.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sholeh A. Maani, 2004. "Why Have Maori Relative Income Levels Deteriorated Over Time?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 80(248), pages 101-124, March.
    2. James Heckman, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    3. John Forth & Nikolaos Theodoropoulos & Alex Bryson, 2023. "The role of the workplace in ethnic wage differentials," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(2), pages 259-290, June.
    4. New Zealand Treasury, 2018. "Statistical Analysis of Ethnic Wage Gaps in New Zealand," Treasury Analytical Papers Series ap18/03, New Zealand Treasury.
    5. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    6. Carrington, William J & Troske, Kenneth R, 1998. "Interfirm Segregation and the Black/White Wage Gap," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(2), pages 231-260, April.
    7. David Neumark, 1988. "Employers' Discriminatory Behavior and the Estimation of Wage Discrimination," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(3), pages 279-295.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. David C. Maré & Richard Fabling, 2025. "Firm productivity and ethnic wages," Motu Working Papers 25_08, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    3. David C. Maré & Richard Fabling, 2025. "Firms and ethnic wage differences," Motu Working Papers 25_07, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Oscar Molina Tejerina & Luis Castro Peñarrieta, 2020. "Unexplained Wage Gaps in the Tradable and Nontradable Sectors: Cross-Sectional Evidence by Gender in Bolivia," Investigación & Desarrollo, Universidad Privada Boliviana, vol. 20(2), pages 5-23.
    2. Garcia-Aracil, Adela & Winter, Carolyn, 2006. "Gender and ethnicity differentials in school attainment and labor market earnings in Ecuador," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 289-307, February.
    3. Jaume Garcia Villar & Pedro J. Hernández & Ángel López-Nicolás, 2002. "An investigation of the relationship between job characteristics and the gender wage gap," Economics Working Papers 627, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    4. Eric Solberg, 2004. "Occupational assignment, hiring discrimination, and the gender pay gap," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 32(1), pages 11-27, March.
    5. Skoufias, Emmanuel, 2003. "The structure of wages during the economic transition in Romania," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 345-366, December.
    6. Ramskogler, Paul & Riedl, Aleksandra & Schoiswohl, Florian, 2020. "Swinging female labor demand – How the public sector influences gender wage gaps in Europe," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 302, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    7. Phan, Van & Singleton, Carl & Bryson, Alex & Forth, John & Ritchie, Felix & Stokes, Lucy & Whittard, Damian, 2022. "Accounting for Firms in Ethnicity Wage Gaps throughout the Earnings Distribution," IZA Discussion Papers 15284, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Forth, John & Jones, Melanie K., 2025. "The Disability Pay Gap Within and Across Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 17679, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Murat Genc, 2017. "Gender, Ethnicity, and Wages in New Zealand," EcoMod2017 10338, EcoMod.
    10. Günalp, Burak & Cilasun, Seyit Mümin & Acar, Elif Öznur, 2013. "Male-Female Labor Market Participation and the Extent of Gender-Based Wage Discrimination in Turkey," MPRA Paper 51503, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Panizza, Ugo & Qiang, Christine Zhen-Wei, 2005. "Public-private wage differential and gender gap in Latin America: Spoiled bureaucrats and exploited women?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 810-833, December.
    12. Ebo Botchway & Kofi Fred Asiedu, 2020. "Ownership type and earnings gap decomposition: Evidence from the Ghanaian labor market," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 32(4), pages 619-631, December.
    13. Shoshana Neuman & Ronald Oaxaca, 2004. "Wage Decompositions with Selectivity-Corrected Wage Equations: A Methodological Note," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 2(1), pages 3-10, April.
    14. Bonaccolto-Töpfer, Marina & Briel, Stephanie, 2022. "The gender pay gap revisited: Does machine learning offer new insights?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Jonathan Haughton & Wendi Sun & Le Thi Thanh Loan, 2018. "Discrimination against Migrants in Urban Vietnam," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 24(3), pages 211-232, August.
    16. MA, Xinxin & CHENG, Jie, 2023. "The Impact of Trade Unions on the Gender Wage Gap : Evidence from China," Discussion Paper Series 752, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    17. Somasree Poddar & Ishita Mukhopadhyay, 2019. "Gender Wage Gap: Some Recent Evidences from India," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 17(1), pages 121-151, March.
    18. Dominique Meurs & Sophie Ponthieux, 2006. "L'écart des salaires entre les femmes et les hommes peut-il encore baisser ?," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 398(1), pages 99-129.
    19. Paternostro, Stefano & Sahn, David E., 1999. "Wage determination and gender discrimination in a transition economy : the case of Romania," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2113, The World Bank.
    20. Robert Drago, 1994. "The Effects of Job and Housing Location on Race/Gender Wage Differentials in Milwaukee: Testing the `Network Hypothesis'," Labor and Demography 9404001, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18275. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.