Conference Paper
Higher Participation but Lower Pay? Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap in Turkey
No.
ERF30_60
Publisher
ERF
Date
March, 2024
Women labor force participation rate in Turkey hit its lowest value in the mid-2000s at 23% and has been rising since then. The latest statistics put the female labor force participation rate at 35.1% in 2022 (TurkStat, 2022). Using a synthetic cohort analysis, Tunalı et al. (2021) find empirical support for the U-shaped pattern of female labor force participation over the course of development and evidence that Turkey is on the rising part of the U. Another important development is the rising wage employment among women. While in 2004, nearly half of employed women held a paid job, this figure increased to nearly 70% in 2022. Unlike many MENA countries, women are primarily employed in the private sector. Against these favorable developments, it is also the case that the gender wage gap grew over time. While prior to 2010, women monthly wages were 96% of men, the gap gradually opened up so that in 2021 it reduced to 91%. This is despite the fact that, on average, women wage earners are more educated than men. In this paper, we examine occupational gender segregation and consider its impact on men and women wages. We use microdata from several rounds of the regularly conducted Household Labor Surveys of TurkStat, which provide information on wages and the occupation held by labor market participants based on a two-digit ISCO-08 occupational classification.
Research Fellows
Meltem Dayioglu Tayfur
Professor, Department of Economics, Middle East Technical...
Authors
Sezgin Polat
Professor of Economics, Galatasaray University