Sector-specific gender pay gap: evidence from the European Union Countries

Abstract

The study aims to determine whether the unexplained gender wage gap varies in the different sectors of the economy and to identify the possible causes of these differences. Firstly, we estimate average treatment effect on the individual sectors to identify the unexplained part of gender pay gap. To identify the possible causes of observed variability in unexplained gender wage differences, we use a linear regression model. Using European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data for 24 European Union (EU) members, we conclude that the unexplained gender pay gap in the individual sectors varies both within the individual EU countries and among the countries. The most important factors in explaining the differences in the gender pay gap among the individual sectors are ownership and the proportion of women in the sector. On the other hand, the proportion of female managers and the proportion of small companies are not statistically significant factors for the explanation of the variation in the sector-specific gender pay gaps. To the best of my knowledge, this study is the first to present fully comparable estimates of the unexplained sector-specific gender pay gap for the 24 EU countries and to identify the causes of the differences in the unexplained gender pay gap at the sectoral level.