Is gender pay gap low in plants with more female managers? Evidence from small and medium entreprises of Vietnam 2007

Abstract

The goal of gender equality in income is not only an important matter of human rights but also basic requirement for development of fair and efficiency. Therefore, study on the state of gender inequality in income has the significant implications in moving toward the equality in society and enhancing the efficiency of economic and social growth. Actually, there have been many previous studies related to the issues of gender income difference, particularly the factors impact on reducing the gender gap in earnings. Inheriting these previous researches, my dissertation attempts to investigate whether the gender gap in earnings is low in the establishments with more female managers. Using a sample size of 1043 employees and 2492 enterprises were surveyed in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in Vietnam in the year of 2007, matching employer and employee data and distinguishing occupation the study ends up 345 job–cells. In addition, ordinary least squares modeling and ordinary least square with job-cell fixed effects are applied to explore the effect on male – female income difference of proportion of female manager. Various explanatory variables for characteristics of workers and plants are used as control variables. Result reveals that there is a negative relationship between the female share in managers and gender pay gap, and the education has a significant statistic and strong impact on the wage of the labors.