Can Minimum Wages Close the Gender Wage Gap? : Evidence from Indonesia
Using manufacturing plant-level census data, this paper demonstrates that minimum wage increases in Indonesia reduced gender wage gaps among production workers, with heterogeneous impacts by level of education and position of the firm in the wage d...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/07/24775844/can-minimum-wages-close-gender-wage-gap-evidence-indonesia http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22449 |
| Summary: | Using manufacturing plant-level census
data, this paper demonstrates that minimum wage increases in
Indonesia reduced gender wage gaps among production workers,
with heterogeneous impacts by level of education and
position of the firm in the wage distribution.
Paradoxically, educated women appear to have benefitted the
most, particularly in the lower half of the firm average
earnings distribution. By contrast, women who did not
complete primary education did not benefit on average, and
even lost ground in the upper end of the earnings
distribution. Minimum wage increases were thus associated
with exacerbated gender pay gaps among the least educated,
and reduced gender gaps among the best educated production
workers. Unconditional quantile regression analysis attests
to wage compression and lighthouse effects. Changes in
relative employment prospects were limited. |
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