DP13577 Gender Wage Gaps and Worker Mobility: Evidence from the Garment Sector in Bangladesh

Author(s):	Andreas Menzel, Christopher Woodruff
Publication Date:	March 2019
Date Revised:	June 2019
Keyword(s):	Export-oriented manufacturing, Gender wage gaps, monopsony in motion
JEL(s):	J16, J31, O14
Programme Areas:	Labour Economics, Development Economics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=13577

Data from 70 large export-oriented garment manufacturers in Bangladesh show that gender wage gaps are similar to those found in higher-income countries. Among pro-duction workers, women's wages are 8 percent lower. We show that by combining short administrative panels, survey data from a representative sample of workers, and struc-ture, we can estimate how the wage gap evolves over workers' careers. Gender differ-ences in internal and across-factory promotions contribute roughly equally to the emergence of the gender gap over worker careers. Differences in promotion rates ap-pear to arise mainly from career concerns rather than frictions coming from household responsibilities.