Wage gap between men and women in Tunisia

TL;DR

This paper estimates the gender wage gap in Tunisia using Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, finding that about 19% of the wage difference is mainly due to discrimination against women, particularly undervaluation of female characteristics.

Contribution

It applies Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to Tunisian data to quantify and analyze the extent of wage discrimination against women.

Findings

Gender wage gap is approximately 19%.

Discrimination accounts for most of the wage gap.

Female characteristics are undervalued in the labor market.

Abstract

This paper focuses on estimating wage differences between males and females in Tunisia by using the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, a technical that isolates wage gap due to characteristics, from wage gap due to discrimination against women. The data used in the analysis is obtained from the Tunisian Population and Employment Survey 2005. It is estimated that, the gender wage gap is about 19% and the results ascertain that the gender wage gap is mostly attributed to discrimination, especially to underestimation of females'caracteristics on the labor market.