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TO WA R D G E N D E R E Q UA L I T Y I N E A S T A S I A A N D T H E PAC I F I C
during this period. Dhanani and Islam (2004) find that, although females earned on average about 30 percent less than men between 1976 and 2000 in Indonesia, overall wage inequality varies with industrial affiliation as well as education and age. The wage gap in Indonesia increases substantially with age, reflecting in part growing differences in education and experience between older men and women. Since women have higher levels of education on average than men in some countries in the region, estimates suggest that women would have earned more than men had they faced the same returns to their education and other characteristics as men. In the Philippines and Mongolia, women’s levels of human capital are higher than those of men on average. In Mongolia, taking into account the different characteristics of men and women, women should have earned 22 percent more than men in 2006 (Pastore 2009). Similarly, in the Philippines, education and other characteristics of women would suggest that, on average, the wages of women should be higher than those of men (Sakellariou 2011). The bulk of the gender wage gap within the region is due to differences in the labor market value of male and female characteristics.17 In the East Asia and Pacific region, the fraction of the gender wage gap explained by differences in characteristics (such as education and experience)—the explained component—is smaller than the fraction of the wage gap attributable to differences in returns—the unexplained component (Sakellariou 2011). Figure 3.14 shows the percentage difference between male and female wages at deciles of the wage distribution in Indonesia in 2009, and the difference in male and female wages that is attributable to differences in characteristics and returns on those characteristics.18 Two noteworthy points emerge from figure 3.14. First, the gender wage gap is wider at the bottom than at the top of the wage distribution, pointing toward the phenomenon of “sticky floors.” Second, differences in returns to characteristics between men and women are able to account for a greater share of the gender wage gap at all points in the wage distribution—the
gender wage gap attributable to returns to characteristics is greater than the gender wage gap attributable to characteristics across the distribution. On average, differences in characteristics explain just over 35 percent of the gross gap in 2009. Differences in labor market experience and returns to labor market experience constituted the major contributor to the characteristics component in both years. There is substantial variation in the share of gender wage gaps explained by differences in characteristics between men and women. In Vietnam, the fraction of the gap explained by differences in characteristics is only 11 percent in urban areas, whereas in rural areas the characteristics of females would suggest that, on average, the wages of women should be higher than those of men (Sakellariou 2011). In China, the mean gender pay gap increased substantially between 1987 and 2007, from 18 percent in 1995 (Chi and Li 2007) to nearly 30 percent in 2007 (Li and Song 2011). Over this period, the majority of the increase was not attributable to differences in characteristics but rather was due to unexplained differences in the returns to male and female characteristics. Marriage and childbearing have a larger negative effect on the wages of females than on the wages of males. The trade-off for women between career, earnings growth, and family does not appear to exist for men. For some women, this trade-off is associated with increasingly stark choices. Anecdotal evidence suggests that women in richer parts of East Asia are increasingly less likely to marry and marry later when they do, in part because of the perceived incompatibility of marriage and career (Economist 2011). The negative effect of childbearing on earnings and employment has been found across the world as well as within countries in the East Asia and Pacific region.19 In Cebu, in the Philippines, children have a strong negative effect on a woman’s likelihood of participating in the labor force and, once in the labor force, on her earnings over time. The negative effect of children on women’s earnings represents both a reduction in the number of hours worked and a shift to lower-paying and often less secure