TY - JOUR

T1 - The gender wage gap in Myanmar

T2 - Adding insult to injury?

AU - Hansen, Henrik

AU - Rand, John

AU - Win, Ngu Wah

PY - 2022/8

Y1 - 2022/8

N2 - Using two surveys from 2017, we analyze the gender wage gap for urban workers in Myanmar. We start from a standard wage equation and condition on education, experience, health and a small set of household demographic attributes. Subsequently we control for differences in occupational choice and sector of employment. We estimate the models with sample selection correction and this leads to estimated average wage offers that are lower than the observed average wages for women. Selection into wage work results in a workforce where female wage-workers have higher levels of education compared to their male counterparts. However, average wages for female workers continue to be 29% lower than male average wages. Differences in observable attributes do not account for this gap. Instead, it is associated with a lower base wage and lower remuneration of women’s experience. Going beyond the traditional decomposition methods, we utilize our matched employer–employee survey to generate exact comparisons of female and male production workers with equal levels of education and experience, employed in the same enterprises. Even in this setting, we find a gender wage gap of 13%. Our analysis thus indicates discrimination against women in Myanmar’s labor markets.

AB - Using two surveys from 2017, we analyze the gender wage gap for urban workers in Myanmar. We start from a standard wage equation and condition on education, experience, health and a small set of household demographic attributes. Subsequently we control for differences in occupational choice and sector of employment. We estimate the models with sample selection correction and this leads to estimated average wage offers that are lower than the observed average wages for women. Selection into wage work results in a workforce where female wage-workers have higher levels of education compared to their male counterparts. However, average wages for female workers continue to be 29% lower than male average wages. Differences in observable attributes do not account for this gap. Instead, it is associated with a lower base wage and lower remuneration of women’s experience. Going beyond the traditional decomposition methods, we utilize our matched employer–employee survey to generate exact comparisons of female and male production workers with equal levels of education and experience, employed in the same enterprises. Even in this setting, we find a gender wage gap of 13%. Our analysis thus indicates discrimination against women in Myanmar’s labor markets.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Discrimination

KW - Gender difference

KW - Labour market

KW - Mincer earnings function

KW - Myanmar

KW - Wages

U2 - 10.1016/j.asieco.2022.101511

DO - 10.1016/j.asieco.2022.101511

M3 - Journal article

VL - 81

JO - Journal of Asian Economics

JF - Journal of Asian Economics

SN - 1049-0078

M1 - 101511

ER -