Revisiting The Impact of Occupational Segregation on the Gender Earnings Gap in Malaysia

More women participate in the labour force nowadays than in the past. However, they do not join the workforce as equal members. Segregation in occupational distribution and pay differentials between men and women remain pervasive. This article uses data from the Malaysian Population and Family Surve...

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Main Authors: Ching Goy, Siew, Johnes, Geraint
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/86/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/86/1/Revisiting%20the%20impact%20of%20occupational%20segregation%20%28abstract%29.pdf
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author Ching Goy, Siew
Johnes, Geraint
author_facet Ching Goy, Siew
Johnes, Geraint
author_sort Ching Goy, Siew
building UNIMAS Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description More women participate in the labour force nowadays than in the past. However, they do not join the workforce as equal members. Segregation in occupational distribution and pay differentials between men and women remain pervasive. This article uses data from the Malaysian Population and Family Survey 2004 to shed light on the inequality in earnings based on the framework developed by Brown et al. (1980). The empirical results suggest that segregation per se works to the advantage of women. A surprising finding is that the intra-occupational component, which is unjustified by reference to observed characteristics, is responsible for the overall earnings gap. It is likely that the within-occupational earnings discrimination reflects hierarchical segregation. Also, a portion of the earnings gap is attributed to a sample selection effect. Our results suggest that a timely policy intervention would aim to find ways of improving the returns to characteristics earned by women in a given occupation.
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spelling unimas-862016-12-28T06:35:33Z http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/86/ Revisiting The Impact of Occupational Segregation on the Gender Earnings Gap in Malaysia Ching Goy, Siew Johnes, Geraint H Social Sciences (General) HM Sociology More women participate in the labour force nowadays than in the past. However, they do not join the workforce as equal members. Segregation in occupational distribution and pay differentials between men and women remain pervasive. This article uses data from the Malaysian Population and Family Survey 2004 to shed light on the inequality in earnings based on the framework developed by Brown et al. (1980). The empirical results suggest that segregation per se works to the advantage of women. A surprising finding is that the intra-occupational component, which is unjustified by reference to observed characteristics, is responsible for the overall earnings gap. It is likely that the within-occupational earnings discrimination reflects hierarchical segregation. Also, a portion of the earnings gap is attributed to a sample selection effect. Our results suggest that a timely policy intervention would aim to find ways of improving the returns to characteristics earned by women in a given occupation. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2012 Article PeerReviewed text en http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/86/1/Revisiting%20the%20impact%20of%20occupational%20segregation%20%28abstract%29.pdf Ching Goy, Siew and Johnes, Geraint (2012) Revisiting The Impact of Occupational Segregation on the Gender Earnings Gap in Malaysia. Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, 46 (1).
spellingShingle H Social Sciences (General)
HM Sociology
Ching Goy, Siew
Johnes, Geraint
Revisiting The Impact of Occupational Segregation on the Gender Earnings Gap in Malaysia
title Revisiting The Impact of Occupational Segregation on the Gender Earnings Gap in Malaysia
title_full Revisiting The Impact of Occupational Segregation on the Gender Earnings Gap in Malaysia
title_fullStr Revisiting The Impact of Occupational Segregation on the Gender Earnings Gap in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Revisiting The Impact of Occupational Segregation on the Gender Earnings Gap in Malaysia
title_short Revisiting The Impact of Occupational Segregation on the Gender Earnings Gap in Malaysia
title_sort revisiting the impact of occupational segregation on the gender earnings gap in malaysia
topic H Social Sciences (General)
HM Sociology
url http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/86/
http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/86/1/Revisiting%20the%20impact%20of%20occupational%20segregation%20%28abstract%29.pdf