Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine the determinants of income and income gap for male and female workers in Pakistan. We have used province, literacy, education, occupation, industry, status of job, age, marital status and region as explanatory variables to estimate earning functions separately for males and females by applying the OLS method using HIES 2010-11 data. The earnings gap between males and females has also been analyzed by using the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method. Results shows that return to education rises with level of education for workers of both sexes however, they are significantly higher for female workers as compared to male workers. Both males and females working as senior professionals, managers and technicians have been emerged as the highest earners. Male paid employees earn less and female paid employees earn more than their employers & self employed counter parts. Married male workers earn more and married female workers earn less than the singles. We find individual characteristics like education, occupation, job status and marital status as the major determinants of income gap between male and female workers in Pakistan.

Keywords:

Earning functions, HIES, income, Mincerian model, Oaxaca-blinder decomposition,

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The authors have no competing interests.

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