The Gender Wage Gap in Croatia – Estimating the Impact of Differing Rewards by Means of Counterfactual Distributions

The aim of this paper is to estimate the size of, changes in, and main factors contributing to gender-based wage differentials in Croatia. It utilizes microdata from the Labor Force Surveys of 1998 and 2008 and applies both OLS and quantile regression techniques to assess the gender wage gap across the wage distribution. The average unadjusted gender wage gap is found to be relatively low and declining. This paper argues that employed women in Croatia possess higher-quality labor market characteristics than men, especially in terms of education, but receive much lower rewards for these characteristics. The Machado-Mata decomposition technique is used to estimate the gender wage gap as the sole effect of differing rewards. The results suggest that due to differing rewards the gap exceeds 20 percent on average - twice the size of the unadjusted gap - and that it increased somewhat between 1998 and 2008. The gap is found to be the highest at the lower-to-middle part of the wage distribution

Income Distribution in Croatia: What Do the Household Budget Survey Data Tell Us?

The paper analyses income distribution in Croatia using the Household Budget Survey data. The results point to a mild increase in inequality during the 1998-2002 period. A non-linear increase in pensions in 2001 in favour of the better-off households has contributed to the rising inequality. In the meantime, other social transfers have become better targeted towards the poor suppressing overall inequality increase. Wages and salaries have become increasingly important and more unequally distributed sources of income. The income share of the poorest decile has shrunk due to its lower share in wages and pensions. The paper concludes with a proposal for introducing a panel survey of households in order to improve monitoring of poverty and inequality

Differing Characteristics or Differing Rewards: What is Behind the Gender Wage Gap in Croatia?

U radu se razmatra veličina i čimbenici razlike u plaćama između žena i muškaraca u Hrvatskoj. Koriste se individualni podaci iz Ankete radne snage 1998. i 2005. godine, te se uz pomoć OLS i kvantilnih regresija ocjenjuje jaz na različitim dijelovima distribucije plaća. Jaz u plaćama između žena i muškaraca relativno je mali na donjem kraju distribucije i postupno se povećava prema njenom gornjem kraju. Pokazuje se da zaposlene žene u Hrvatskoj općenito posjeduju bolje radne karakteristike od muškaraca, posebice višu razinu obrazovanja, ali da su njihove karakteristike manje cijenjene, odnosno manje plaćene od usporedivih karakteristika muškaraca, što dovodi do opaženog jaza u plaćama. U radu se nalaze određeni argumenti u prilog postojanja «staklenog stropa» (jaz u plaćama najveći je kod najbolje plaćenih radnih mjesta) i rodne segregacije po zanimanjima. Rad razmatra i utjecaj roditeljstva na plaće. Pokazuje se da u privatnom sektoru, u slučaju relativno dobro plaćenih poslova, majke zarađuju manje od žena bez djece.This paper aims at estimating the size of, changes in, and main factors contributing to gender-based wage differentials in Croatia. It utilises microdata from the Labour Force Survey in 1998 and 2005, and applies both OLS and quantile regression techniques to assess the gender wage gap across the wage distribution. The gender wage gap is found to be relatively mild at the lower part of the wage distribution and is getting larger as one moves towards the top of the distribution. The paper argues that employed women in Croatia possess higher-quality labour market characteristics, especially levels of education, but receive much lower rewards for these characteristics. Some evidence of a glass-ceiling effect and occupational segregation are found. The impact of having children on the wage prospects of women is also considered. The paper finds that at the top of the wage distribution in the private sector mothers earn lower wages than women without children