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Explaining Pro-Women: Gender Wage Gap in Bangladesh

 

Gender wage gap in the labour market is a widely discussed issue in relevant discourse and literature. Societal attitude, occupational segregation, vertical segregation, barriers to entry and retention, and discriminatory practices at workplace are often cited as factors contributing to women getting lower wages compared to men. However, the ILO publication titled “Global Wage Report 2018/19: What lies behind gender pay gaps” singles out Bangladesh as an outlier where women’s average wages, both raw and factor-adjusted, were found to be higher than those of men. These counter-intuitive findings have raised a lot of interest and queries as regards the underlying causes leading to these results. The present study undertakes a thorough investigation of the methodology deployed by the ILO study and critically examines the factors contributing to the reverse gender gap as found in case of Bangladesh.

Using alternative methods and tools of analysis, the study finds, contrary to the ILO findings, that in terms of raw (non-adjusted) as also factor-adjusted wages, women in Bangladesh, on average, earn less than those of men. The study argues that while for the same type and level of job gender-based wage discrimination is not found to be significant, there does exist a glass ceiling in the Bangladesh labour market resulting in lower share of women in higher paying jobs. The study offers suggestions to improve methods of gender wage gap estimation, and recommends policy initiatives towards greater participation of women in the Bangladesh labour force and for creating better opportunities for women in higher paying jobs in the Bangladesh labour market.

Herausgeber*in/Autor*in: Mustafizur Rahman Md. Al-Hasan, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Bangladesch (FES), Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD); Autor*innen: Mustafizur Rahman Md. Al-Hasan

Medienart: Hintergrundinformation

Erscheinungsjahr: 2021

Zielgruppe: Student*innen, Erwachsene

Sprache: Englisch

Umfang: 36 Seiten
Bezug: Zum Download (PDF-Datei) 

Suchbegriffe: Bangladesch, Frauen, Gender, Gender Pay Gap, Löhne, Menschenrechte