Is there really unequal pay for equal work between men and women in the Czech Republic? Problems with the decomposition of wage determinants

• Authors: Petr Kužel
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This study focuses on issues of the adjusted gender pay gap (AGPG) and problematises existing approaches to calculating this indicator, especially Eurostat’s methodology. It analyses the different factors and variables with which Eurostat and other authors work, noting flaws in their measurement methods. The unadjusted gender pay gap (GPG) is typically divided into explained and unexplained parts, with the latter interpreted as the effect of unequal pay for equal work. This study demonstrates why the unexplained part might be considerably smaller than reported by existing studies (typically at 14%–15% and 17% in the case of Eurostat). What is key to determining the size of the explained part of the GPG is what productive characteristics and how many of them are included in statistical model. Existing analyses have artificially increased the adjusted part of the GPG due to simplifications in their application. For example, as this study shows, substituting the category of total job experience with the category of age has a significant impact, along with several minor shifts in the statistical analysis. When combined, these shifts are responsible for the substantial overestimation of the adjusted GPG. This study aims to eliminate these flaws and provide a theoretical and descriptive account of the reasons behind the overestimation.

Keywords

EN

unadjusted gender pay gap; adjusted gender pay gap; Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition; equal pay; discrimination; Czechia

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Sociologický časopis. Czech Sociological Review
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 60
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 577-601
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Petr Kužel

• Sociologický časopis, redakce, Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i., Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic