GENDER DIFFERENCES IN WAGES: ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS FOR ECUADOR

Códigos JEL: J01, J17, J24, J70

Abstract

Wage differences by gender are a phenomenon present in labor markets. Thus, women receive a lower salary than their male counterparts, even with the same educational levels. The present work aims to estimate the returns to education by gender in Ecuador for the years 2010, 2013, 2016, through the estimation of a semi-logarithmic Mincerian model corrected for selection bias. The results show that, for the study period, on average the salary received by women is 10.5% lower than that received by their male peers; Disaggregating by educational level, this trend continues to be observed, such that by 2016, having completed higher education generates an additional increase in wages of 4.9% and 16.5% for women and men, respectively, observing a penalty in terms of wages for female workers. women with a college degree. On the other hand, a greater labor participation of women in the formal sector of the economy has made it possible to reduce the salary income gap, such that by 2016 the returns to education for women exceeded those for men by 10.7 %.