Gender Gap in Earnings in Vietnam : Why Do Vietnamese Women Work in Lower Paid Occupations?
Differences in earnings between male and female workers persist in developed and developing countries despite a narrowing of gender gaps in educational attainment over the past half-century. This paper examines the gender wage gap in Vietnam and sh...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/717051525869722243/Gender-gap-in-earnings-in-Vietnam-why-do-Vietnamese-women-work-in-lower-paid-occupations http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29839 |
| Summary: | Differences in earnings between male and
female workers persist in developed and developing countries
despite a narrowing of gender gaps in educational attainment
over the past half-century. This paper examines the gender
wage gap in Vietnam and shows that a nontrivial part of the
gap is associated with occupational sorting. The paper
considers three explanations for why occupational sorting
emerges. First, it explores whether women sort into
occupations with better nonmonetary characteristics, such as
paid leave and shorter hours. The data from Labor Force
Surveys support this hypothesis. Second, it checks if
occupational sorting among the adult labor force is driven
by social norms about gender roles learned and internalized
at an early age. To do so, the paper checks for evidence of
sorting in the aspirations of 12-year-old children.
Specifically, the analysis simulates what the gender wage
gap would be if boys and girls pursued the occupations they
aspired to at age 12, and the distribution of salaries
remained unchanged. The paper does not find support for the
hypothesis that gender norms drive occupational sorting by
inducing aspirational sorting at an early age. Finally, for
individuals with higher education, the paper checks if
occupational sorting occurs during the school-to-work
transition, when women face higher barriers in finding a job
in their field of study. The analysis does not find evidence
to support this last hypothesis. Overall, the findings
suggest that in Vietnam gender-specific preferences for
nonmonetary job characteristics play a key role in the
emergence of occupational sorting. |
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