The Factors Of Gender Earning Differential In Labor Market Of China

Since China’s economic reform in1979, gender earnings differential has appeared in the labor market of China with male workers having higher salary than female workers. This difference has drawn academics’attention due to its negative influence on achieving fairness and improving the efficiency of economic growth which will result in unhealthy development of economic and social. Scholars in different fields have been studying to reveal the reasons and factors of gender earning differential for many years and have already reached a consensus on the reason of the wage differential. The concept of sex discrimination which is a residual with Chinese traditional feudal culture is the main reason of gender earning differential, Whereas, there is no consistent conclusion about the main factor of gender earning differential currently. With the deepening of marketization process, the influence on gender earning differential of different factors is changing, which means studying the influence of different factors at the present exactly is the key to guarantee the government’s policy feasible.Based on modified Neumark decomposition which could eliminate bench benchmark index, this paper attempts to analyze the current situation of different factors on gender earning differential using CFPS2010. The result shows that human capital and employment structure can explain about3/4of total gender earning differential while sex discrimination can only explain1/4of total gender differential, which means personal features are the main factors of gender earning differential. After using multiple nested models to implement a further study on the impact of different personal feature on gender earning differential, we found that education background is the most influential factor which can result in about41%of explained gender earning differential while the secondary are occupational classification and industry classification. The findings suggest that education is the best way to elimination gender earning differential. Occupation segmentation and industry segmentation also prevent wage difference from reducing by affecting job obtaining. Then this paper analyze the influence of personal feature on job obtaining which will give basis for government making policy to eliminate gender earning differential and female workers making appropriate careers.According to the findings of the study, this paper then makes suggestions to governments as follows:Firstly, fully security to rights of women to receive education which includes basic education and worked related training. Secondly, strengthen legislation and supervision to guarantee female workers receive equal rights from employer and make effort to eliminate occupation segmentation and industry segmentation during job searching. Last but not the least, publicize the concept of sex equal and respectful for women via traditional media such as newspaper and new media such as TV and Internet to eliminate senseless sex discrimination. What’s more, female workers should also receive education through a variety of ways actively to gain human capital in order to enhance competitiveness in the labor market.