An empirical investigation of the gender wage gap in South Africa

• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Pay equity - South Africa; Discrimination in employment - South Africa
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8333

M.Comm. (Economics) === Gender wage inequality in South Africa from 2001 to 2010 is investigated in this dissertation. This is done through the decomposition of the gender wage gap and quantile regression. It is shown that the gender wage gap in South Africa is highest both at lower and higher parts of the wage distribution. Moreover, the gender wage gaps at the 50th and 75th quantiles are either not statistically significant or they are in favour of women. It is shown that the gender wage gap is largely driven by the size of the coefficients component, even in the face of a positive characteristics component indicating that there is a level of discrimination along the wage distribution. In the assessment of the gender wage gap between black females and white males, it is shown that the gender wage gap is always in favour of white males. However, since it is lowest at higher points of the wage distribution, the conclusion is that black women at lower points of the wage distribution face the most adverse effects of the intersection of race and gender in terms of the gender wage gap. Moreover, black women at higher points of the wage distribution have been the most likely beneficiaries of the employment equity policies.