Gender Differences In Labor Force Participation And Wages

In transitional China, labor market has evolved greatly, and therefore the position of female in the labor market has become an increasingly interesting issue. By utilizing data from China Nutrition Survey in 1989,1991,1993 and 1997, this paper analyses the gender differentials in labor participation and working payments in order to contribute to this literature. The main findings of the paper are of two aspects. On the one hand, gender inequality in labor participation has been diminishing. The Probit models show that while the advantage of men to women in employment opportunities persisted over the period of survey under analysis, the magnitude of the gender effect weakened. However, educational attainment has become a basic factor in employment. On the other hand, wage gap between male and female has been increasing. First of all, raw gender wage differentials increased significantly from 1989 to 1997. Then, with control on other variables and labor market self-selection, the results of simple wage regression indicate that gender wage gap was significantly rising over time. Further analyses with additional interaction terms in models specify some groups who bore most increases of gender wage inequality: labors over 40-year-old group, in non-state sector or being blue-collar job; by contrast, among labors below 40-year-old, workers in state sector or white-collar employees, gender gaps appear relatively insignificant. Additionally, there has been a dramatic increase in returns to education of male and female labor force, the return to education of female was consistently higher than male. Finally, using Oaxaca and Cotton decomposition methods, the research finds that the unexplained part of gender wage gap increased dramatically, from 25% in 1989 to about 70% in the 1990s. The conclusions of the paper are, in the era of economic transition, the effect of gender factor on employment access has diminished, but the gender wage differential has increased. These two-fold results suggest mixed aspects of impact from marketization on women's employment and welfare.