Sticky Floors and Glass Ceilings in Latin America

Is Self-Employment the Answer to Caste Discrimination? Decomposing the Earnings Gap in Indian Household Nonfarm Businesses

“…Quantile regressions with one specification reveal that gaps are higher at lower deciles than the higher ones, after controlling for characteristics, and the quantile decompositions reveal that the unexplained component is greater at the lower and middle deciles than higher, suggesting that SCST-owned businesses at the lower and middle end of the conditional earnings distribution face greater discrimination, as compared to those at the higher end. Thus, we find some evidence supporting a 'sticky floor', a phenomenon observed in the context of gender wage gaps in developing countries (e.g., Chi and Li 2008;Carrillo et al 2014). …”

“…14 Unlike gender wage gaps in most developed countries that are characterized by 'glass ceilings' (i.e., increasing wage gaps as one moves from lower to higher quantiles), several developing countries reveal a sticky floor, for instance India (Khanna 2013), China (Chi and Li 2008), and Vietnam (Pham and Reilly 2007). In fact, Carrillo et al (2014) find that gender wage gaps in poorer and more unequal countries exhibit sticky floors whereas glass ceilings characterize richer and less unequal ones, using a sample of 12 Latin American countries.…”

Disadvantage and discrimination in self-employment: caste gaps in earnings in Indian small businesses

“…Unconditional caste gaps in earnings are higher at lower percentiles than at the higher percentiles. Thus, we find some evidence supporting a 'sticky floor,' a phenomenon observed in the context of gender wage gaps in developing countries (e.g., Chi and Li 2008;Carrillo et al 2014). Quantile decompositions based on our preferred specification reveal that the unexplained component is significant in the middle part of the distribution (viz., between the fourth and eighth deciles), where it hovers around 15 % of the total gap in earnings.…”

“…17 Unlike gender wage gaps in most developed countries that are characterized by 'glass Disadvantage and discrimination in self-employment 335 ceilings' (i.e., increasing wage gaps as one moves from lower to higher quantiles), several developing countries reveal a sticky floor, for instance India (Khanna 2013;Deshpande et al 2015), China (Chi and Li 2008), Bangladesh (Nordman et al 2015) and Vietnam (Pham and Reilly 2007). In fact, Carrillo et al (2014) find that gender wage gaps in poorer and more unequal countries exhibit sticky floors, whereas glass ceilings characterize richer and less unequal ones, using a sample of 12 Latin American countries. Tables 4 and 5 report quantile regression results for the two specifications, respectively, for the pooled model at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles.…”

Top Income Shares, Business Profits, and Effective Tax Rates in Contemporary Chile

“…20 We thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion. See Sanhueza and Mayer (2001: 183) for analysis using household surveys and Carrillo et al (2013) on the gender wage gap.…”