Gender wage gap and discrimination in the Czech Republic

Gender differentials on the labour market represent one of the most important and most discussed research topics in the field of labour economics. Early research emphasizes the role of human capit ...

Gender differentials on the labour market represent one of the most important and most discussed research topics in the field of labour economics. Early research emphasizes the role of human capital and discrimination in explaining gender differentials in the labour market outcomes. Recently researchers have started to bring in a number of other socio-economic, psychological and gender identity factors. In majority of the existing empirical research, some type of Oaxaca-Blinder or John-Murphy-Pierce decompositions are used to examine labour market differences between men and women and to quantify levels of discrimination. The main objective of the book is to give overview of what we know so far about various factors contributing to the gender pay gap via reviewing existing theoretical and empirical literature, and to extend our knowledge on the topic through data analysis. In our analyses we mainly focus on the “new” factors such as the relationship between social and gender identity norms, preferences, and gender wage gap. The book focuses also on the role of soft skills, personality characteristics and workplace practices in explaining gender wage gaps. Several of the chapters are based on data from a survey designed precisely to get data on these “new” factors. The survey was conducted in the Czech Republic in 2011 based on the questionnaire, which we constructed to cover various aspects of work and family life, preferences, personality traits and other characteristics of employees and their jobs. Traditional linked employer-employee data are also used in some chapters.