Gender Pay Gap in French Public Administration: An Application of a Novel Three-Step Approach of Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition with Fixed Effect Model

Abstract

This work aims at estimating the gender pay gap within the French ministries. For a long time people considered that, because of the sophisticated organization of the French public service, its mode of recruiting and promoting (through competitive exams and precise career ladder) and its way of paying the employees (through detailed salary scales), discrimination is minimal, if not nonexistent. However, previous results have brought into the debate evidences of significant gender wage differential, both in terms of payments and career paths. Using the data provided by two ministries of the French public service (environment, transportation and housing) from 2012 to 2016 and employing a novel three-step approach of Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition with a fixed effect model, this article suggests that a 8% gender pay gap against women exists in the allocation of indemnities, where roughly 30% of the difference cannot be explained by observable characteristics and is equivalent to approximately €751 per annum for an average female employee. The gap varies substantially among macrogrades, suggesting the allocation mechanism may be far from systematic or centrally managed. Moreover, we do not observe any expanding or diminishing trend in our five-year panel.

Keywords: Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition, Gender Pay Gap, French Public Administration

JEL Classification: J70, J16