Higher Participation but Lower Pay? Occupational Segregation and The Wage Penalty in Turkey

Meltem Dayioglu () and Sezgin Polat
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Meltem Dayioglu: TED University
Sezgin Polat: Galatasaray University

No 1731, Working Papers from Economic Research Forum

Abstract: Women’s labor market participation rate in Turkey hit its lowest value in the mid 2000s at 23% and has been rising since then. The latest statistics put this figure at 35.1%. Just as more women are entering the labor market and turning to wage employment, occupational gender segregation threatens their labor market attachment. In this paper, we examine occupational gender segregation and consider its impact on wages. Using representative micro-data, we find that a unit increase in the segregation index reduces wages received by women by 6.2% but has only a slightly negative effect (0.8%) on men. Furthermore, we observe the most severe wage penalty (13.6%) among the most educated women. Although more women are making inroads into male jobs, those who remain in relatively female-dominated jobs are found to suffer a higher wage penalty. Addressing occupational segregation is important to preserve the momentum of women’s participation.

Pages: 41
Date: 2024-09-20, Revised 2024-09-20
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