The gender gap in Argentina: An analysis on labor market segregation

Abstract

This paper studies the wage gap by gender in Argentina, emphasizing the wage disparity between spouses (married and de facto marriage) and people without partners. Marriage, mainly legal marriage, tends to match similar people, operating as a natural equalizer of situations that are related to income. After examining the level of the wage gap, its structure is analyzed to determine not only the weight of each determinant in the explanation of it, but also to know which part of the gap is explained by differences in the characteristics (education, type of employment, etc.) and which part is explained by different payments to similar characteristics (discrimination). Moreover, the study observes what happens throughout the distribution of wages and investigates the possible existence of “sticky floor” and “glass ceiling” effects. Key words: Gender gap. Discrimination. Segmentation. Sticky floor. Glass ceiling.