Sticky Floors and Glass Ceilings in Latin America

31 Pages Posted: 24 Jul 2013 Last revised: 26 Jul 2013

See all articles by Paul E. Carrillo

Paul E. Carrillo

George Washington University - Department of Economics

Nestor Gandelman

Universidad ORT Uruguay

Virginia Robano

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)

Date Written: May 14, 2013

Abstract

We employ unconditional quantile-decomposition methods to analyze the gender wage gap (GWG) in the urban region of twelve Latin American countries. Using data from harmonized household surveys we decompose the GWG into an explained component (differences in human capital) and an unexplained component (different rates of return to human capital). We find evidence of sticky floors (larger GWG at the tenth percentile than at the median) and glass ceilings (larger GWG at he ninetieth percentile than at the median). The former are more frequent and their magnitude is generally larger. Working women are more educated than working men all along the wage distribution, which partially hides the ‘unexplained’ pay difference. Finally, we find that poorer countries and countries with more income inequality have higher GWG at the tenth percentile of the wage distribution. Richer countries and countries with lower inequality present larger GWG at the ninetieth percent of the wage distribution.

Keywords: quantile decomposition, gender wage gap, glass ceiling, sticky floor, Latin America

JEL Classification: C21, J22, J31

Suggested Citation

Carrillo, Paul E. and Gandelman, Nestor and Robano, Virginia, Sticky Floors and Glass Ceilings in Latin America (May 14, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2297547 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2297547

Paul E. Carrillo

George Washington University - Department of Economics ( email )

Monroe Hall Suite 340
2115 G Street NW
Washington, DC 20052
United States

Nestor Gandelman (Contact Author)

Universidad ORT Uruguay ( email )

Bulevar España 2633
Montevideo, 11.300
Uruguay

Virginia Robano

Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) ( email )

2 rue Andre Pascal
Paris Cedex 16, 75775
France

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
131
Abstract Views
884
Rank
390,836
PlumX Metrics