"Glass Ceiling" or "Sticky Floor": The Evidence from Chinese Labor Market

Abstract

Market-oriented economic reform brought great changes to the Chinese economy and society. The economic reforms accelerated after 1992, and a pattern of 'scientific development' and 'new normal' economics has developed since 2002. During this economic transitional process, issues of income distribution have kept attracting scholars' attention including: changes in earning distribution between genders; the effect of education, work experience, marriage and other factors on gender earnings and the differences among internal groups of women. This paper will use the data of the Chinese Household Income Projects in 2002 and 2013 to analyze earning disparity between genders and female inner groups. It finds that the 'glass ceiling effect' has intensified for women and the 'sticky floor effect' is still severe. Along with the earnings gap increasing between the genders, gender discrimination has also increased, and is particularly pronounced for women of higher earnings.