Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research 2008, 9 (2): 55-66

Within-Job Gender Wage Inequality: The role of the social exclusion of women

Alena Křížková, Andrew M. Penner, Trond Petersen

Using company-level data from the Czech Republic dating from the years 1998, 2002, and 2004, the article examines whether the introduction of legislative measures aimed at gender equality in connection with the country's accession to the European Union had significant effects on gender wage gaps. The main conclusion of the analysis is that within-job wage discrimination is a significant factor in the Czech labour market and that there were no substantive changes during the period studied. Women doing the same job in the same company earn about 10 per cent less than men in the Czech Republic. Much of the gender wage gap can be explained by horizontal and vertical gender segregation of the labour market. The lowest gender wage gaps are found in firms and groups of employees that are representative of or have strong ties to the socialist past. The article concludes with speculations about whether motherhood and the double-burden of women, combined with the lack of respect and authority accorded the path dependent legal system, results in legislative changes having little impact on practices in Czech society and in persistence gender wage discrimination.

Keywords: gender wage gap, gender segregation of the labor market, discrimination

Published: June 1, 2008  Show citation