Sticky Floors and Occupational Segregation: Evidence from Pakistan

Abstract

Ever since the pioneering work on human capital modeling by Becker (1964) and Mincer (1974), estimation of earning potential and wage differentials in terms of differences in human capital endowments has been a favourite topic of research throughout the world. The empirical evidence has established, may be beyond doubt, that low returns are usually associated with low-level of human capital possessed by economic agents. Using appropriate controls for innate abilities, education, experience and training as primary determinants of human capital, the residual differential in wages among differentiated groups (on the basis of gender, race, and region) has often been characterised as discrimination [Blinder (1973) and Oaxaca (1973)]. The empirical estimation made further advances when the issue of sample selection bias was also settled by Heckman (1980). More recently the focus of research has shifted from differentials measured at the conditional mean (average) value to measurement at different points of wage distribution to test the ‘glass ceiling and sticky floor’ hypothesis.1 Some of the studies where quantile regression approach of Koenker and Bassett (1978) and Buchinsky (1998) has been adopted include Bjorklund and Vroman (2001), Dolado and Llorens (2004), and Albrecht, Vuuren, and Vroman (2004). On the basis of this research, the glass ceiling hypothesis has received fair amount of empirical support in much of the developed world. On the other hand, the sticky floor hypothesis has only been observed in some of the countries located in the southern Europe. The focus of present study is on Pakistan with three main objectives. First, to investigate if analysis at the conditional mean is sufficient to explain wage differential or an extensive work covering different points of wage distribution is required to have proper insight to the issue. This would, in turn, enable us to determine which of the two hypotheses, i.e., the glass ceiling or the sticky floor, is prevalent in the country? For this purpose, gender wage differentials at different quantiles, i.e., 10th, 25th, median,

Barriers to women’s representation in academic excellence and positions of power

“…The majority of people hold implicit biases most of us carry the prejudices of which we are unaware, but that nonetheless play a large role in our evaluations of people and their work (Bombuwela and De Alwis 2013;Faiza 2013;Batool, Sajid, and Shaheen 2013;Cocchio 2009;Ahmed et al 2008). Such biases create inequality by causing people to expect greater competence from men than from women, and thus to expect greater rewards to go to men rather to women who are otherwise their equals, biases also lead men, on average, to pay less attention to information that undermines expectations based on gender (Bombuwela and De Alwis 2013;Schwanke 2013;Ghaus 2013).…”

Analysing the glass ceiling and sticky floor effects in Bangladesh: evidence, extent and elements

“…In India, Agrawal (2013) had found evidence of glass ceiling for pooled and rural samples, and of sticky floor for urban sample; Khanna (2012) identified the case of sticky floors for the period of 2009, and Duraisamy and Duraisamy (2016 later corroborated the same phenomenon for all labour market segments for the period of 1983-2012. The works by Hyder and Reilly (2005) and Sabir and Aftab (2007) both nullify the case for a glass ceiling in Pakistan, but Ahmed and Hyder (2008) found the presence of both effects in 2005-2006, with the gap increasing at the lower tail. The latter also scrutinised occupational segregation using Duncan Dissimilarity Index (D-Index) and found education as being the major driver.…”

Relationship Between Patriarchy And Customary Social Practices Affecting Women’s Life In Pakistan

“…Women are mostly segregated in the lowest tiers of occupational hierarchy and face difficulty and unseen barriers in climbing up in this hierarchy. Ahmed and Hyder (2008) found in their research that Pakistani women are facing gender wage gap and it is more increasing in the private sector and at the lower levels of occupational hierarchies where most of Pakistani women workers are segregated. Tabassum (2016, 76) has highlighted the fact that this poor condition of women in labour market is also determined by certain socio-cultural perceptions and practices.…”