Analysing the glass ceiling and sticky floor effects in Bangladesh: Evidence, extent and elements

With deep-seated gender imbalances prevalent in Bangladesh, it is compelling to understand how those women, who do manage to get employed, are faring in terms of equity. A popular approach involves analysing the gender wage gap across the entire distribution. With the assistance of data from QLFS 2016-17, the Mincerian model is estimated under various specifications, and then the final model decomposed using Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition method. Using these analyses at the mean as benchmarks, the entire distribution is examined by employing the conditional quantile regression model and Quantile Counterfactual Decomposition technique. The paper has then proceeded to posit the existence of a strong sticky floor effect and a weaker glass ceiling effect in Bangladesh, with discriminatory rewards to observed characteristics being the dominant feature of the observed wage gap across the entire distribution. Policy prescriptions and potential avenues for further scope concerning the paper are also mentioned in the end.