The impact of firms and inter-sectoral structural change on the gender wage gap

Michael Kilumelume

No wp-2026-71, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: Using matched employer-employee administrative tax data from South Africa, this paper examines the role of firms and sectors in the gender wage gap. Firm-wage premia account for approximately 20 percent of overall wage variation, and gender differences in these premia explain nearly 60 percent of the unadjusted gender wage gap. A decomposition following Card et al. (2016) shows that inter-sectoral sorting is the dominant mechanism: gender differences in access to high-premium sectors account for the majority of the gap in firm-wage premia.

Keywords: Wage gap; Gender; Administrative data; Firms; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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