Wage differentials across female-dominated, male-dominated and mixed-jobs - a case for South Africa

Abstract

One of the most commonly cited reasons to explain the gender wage gap is women’s selection into relatively low paying jobs while men do the same in higher paying jobs. This, in turn, results in female-dominated and male-dominated jobs. Hence, this study investigates the extent to which female-dominated occupations pay less than male-dominated and mixed jobs in South Africa, as this has not yet received significant attention in the literature. Propensity Score Matching techniques, and PALMS and LMDSA 2015 datasets are utilised for the analysis. When confining the analysis to individuals aged 18-60 years, results for the overall sample show that male-dominated and mixed jobs indeed pay more than female-dominated jobs. On the contrary, being in female-dominated jobs pays more than being in a male-dominated job when the sample is generally restricted to men and particularly to those in the non-public sector. For men in the public-sector, being in a female-dominated job pays less than being in a mixed- job, while the reverse is the case for those in the non-public sector. Regarding women, female-dominated occupations tend to pay them less than male-dominated or mixed occupations. This is especially true in the non-public sector. This evidence suggests that the observation that female-dominated jobs pay less than other jobs holds when labour market segmentation is taken into account. Thus it is crucial for informing policy that aims at bringing wage equality and improving the experiences of women (and some men) in the labour force