The Gender Wage Gap across the Wage Distribution in the Private and Public Sectors

Abstract

This study examines gender wage differentials across the wage distribution in the Swedish private and public sectors using quantile regression. Women have lower wages than men across the entire wage distribution. The gender gap increases throughout the distribution and there is a speeding-up effect in the gender gap starting around the 75th percentile, especially in the public sector. Hence, there is evidence of a glass ceiling effect in both the private and public sectors in the Swedish labor market. Using OLS leads to an overestimation of the wage gap at the bottom of the wage distribution, and an underestimation at the top. By focusing only on the mean gender wage gaps, considerable variations in the gender wage gap pass unnoticed.