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Determinants of the gender wage gap in Pakistan

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Abstract

It is common perception that in comparison to men, Pakistani women are earning less. This paper fulfills the identified need to study why there exists gender wage gap in Pakistan. The present study attempted to analyze the existence of wage differentials in Pakistan using data of Pakistan’s Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2020–21 and estimated the ordered logit model. It has been found that gender, age, education level, location of work, marital status, additional benefits, and kind of employment play a significant role in determining wages in Pakistan. It has also been found that women earnings are lower than men and this disparity has increased with the passage of time. The most imperative reason of gender wage difference is women’s involvement in low-earning jobs. The findings are useful in devising policy measures for women empowerment and gender wage gap analysis.

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Data availability

Data are available online at https://www.pbs.gov.pk/content/lfs-2020-21-microdata.

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Acknowledgements

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Funding

There is no funding involved in conducting the present study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Azhar Iqbal Malik & Naeem Akram

Authors
  1. Azhar Iqbal Malik
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  2. Naeem Akram
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Contributions

AIM presented the idea of the study and conducted the estimations and the relevant diagnostic tests. He also wrote the introduction and the literature review section of the study. NA analyzed the estimated results and wrote the ‘estimation result’ section of the study. He also wrote the conclusion and the policy implications of the study.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Naeem Akram.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. However, views presented in the paper are their personal and do not reflect the views of their affiliated institution in any respect.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Malik, A.I., Akram, N. Determinants of the gender wage gap in Pakistan. SN Bus Econ 4, 26 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43546-024-00623-8

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