A Study Of Gender Income Gaps In The Chinese Labor Market

Since the reform and opening up,China?s economy has developed rapidly and the income of laborers has improved significantly.At the same time,the phenomenon of gender income differentiation has also emerged in China's labor market.Researchers from different fields have tried to reveal the influence factors affecting gender wage gap from different perspectives.However,a unified conclusion has not yet been reached.Furthermore,the income gap between different industries in China cannot be ignored.According to the 2016 China Statistical Yearbook data,the average annual income in the highest-income industry is more than 3.6 times that of the lowest-income industry.When choosing their working industry,in addition to the personal characteristics,workers are also influenced by some stereotypes about gender.With the deepening of the market-oriented reform process,the influence of different influencing factors on gender income differences is also changing.Accurately analyzing the role of various influencing factors in the current stage provides strong support for formulating policies to narrow the gender income gap.The 2010,2012,2014 and 2016 survey data of “China Family Panel Studies(CFPS)” are used to conduct empirical analysis under the guidance of theoretical models.Using Mincer wage equation,quantile regression and Brown decomposition model,we reveal the impact of various factors on gender income differences in China's labor market from multiple perspectives,such as the “glass ceiling effect”,the “sticky floor effect” and the industry segmentation.The results show that there is a significant income gap between male and female.The average hourly wage of female workers is less than 70% of that of male workers.There are no significant differences between male and female workers in education,training and intelligence.However,there are certain differences in other aspects such as work experience and health.According to the results of Mincer wage equation,human capital variables such as education level and work experience have significant effects on the income of men and women,and the positive impact of enhancing work experience,improving educational level and training on women's income is greater than on men?s.However,the establishment of families and childbearing will increase male workers? income as a whole,while reducing female ones?.Moreover,the negative impact of childbearing on women has further intensified during the six years from 2010 to 2016.Further analysis found that in the case of controlling other characteristic variables,the female identity will have a significant negative impact on labors? hourly wage.There is a notable phenomenon of unequal pay for equal work in the current labor market in China.According to the results of quantile regression,the impact of gender on income has been reduced in most cases from 2010 to 2016.However,the “sticky floor effect” and the “glass ceiling effect” that were not available in 2010 and 2012 appeared in 2016,and the “sticky floor effect” is relatively more remarkable.For workers at the bottom of the income distribution,being women has a greater negative impact on their income.Then,we introduce industry factors and use the Brown decomposition model to further analyze the composition of gender income differences within and between industries from the perspective of industry segmentation.By decomposing the 2010,2012,2014 and 2016 survey data of CFPS,it is found that the gender income gap in China is mainly caused by discrimination,especially the discrimination within the industry,which accounts for more than 80% of the total gap.However,over the past six years,the proportion of this part has decreased year by year,from 97% in 2010 to 82% in 2016.The proportion of the overall unexplainable part has also fallen by about 6%,which is a trend that is gratifying.At the same time,during the six years from 2010 to 2016,the contribution of industrial segregation to gender income gap increased from 2% to 11%.The proportion of sex discrimination in gender income gap across industries also increased to 94% in 2016.Women are more seriously discriminated against when entering the industry.It is more difficult for women to break out of low-income industries into high-income industries than they did six years ago,and this situation has a greater impact on gender income gap.Through the empirical analyses,we find that there are still significant income differences and gender discrimination between male and female in China?s labor market.To truly promote equality between male and female labors and narrow gender income gap requires all efforts from government,society,as well as female labors themselves.First of all,the government needs to pay attention to the sex income gap.On the one hand,women?s access to education and training should be further protected,so that gender income gap between and within industries caused by differences in personal characteristics among men and women can be reduced.On the other hand,the government needs to improve related laws and regulations through taxation,maternity protection and other methods.The government also needs to improve the market supervision mechanism,strengthen the legal protection of women,especially low-income women,and thus create a more equitable and effective competitive environment.Secondly,from the perspective of female labors themselves,they should pay more attention to their human capital accumulation such as actively improving their educational level,participating in related training and accumulating work experience,in order to improve their own labor productivity,and thereby increasing their income.Finally,we should let the society better recognize the market value of women and reverse some stereotypes about female labors.We should advocate men and women to share social and family responsibilities together,and thus free women from traditional family work,such as housework,childbearing and child care,so that we can create a social atmosphere of equality between men and women.