Investigating Gender Wage Gap in Employment: A Microeconometric Type-Analysis for Cameroon

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the gender wage disparity in paid-employment and self-employment. To achieve this objective, the Cameroon Household Consumption Survey of 2007 was used. The main question considered in this paper is why women paid-employment and self-employment wages are relatively low. In a whole, what are the underlying factors that generate and explains wage gap between men and women householders in employment?

The topic of this paper helps to explain and analyse the functioning of the Cameroonian labour market. Using available data survey, this paper is the first to identify and decompose the causes of paid-employment and self-employment gender wage gap in Cameroon. Firstly, the paper uses the Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition to explain wage gap. Thereafter, the Quantile Regression Decomposition using Machado and Mata approach is applied in order to see the gap at different levels of wage distribution. The main finding indicate that; in both methods, the wage gap is due to unexplained component in self-employment and explained component in paid-employment, particularly with strong effects at the extreme of wage distribution. Narrowing the gender wage gap by eliminating discrimination and approving the principle of equal opportunity; supporting policies that reduce obstacles preventing women from starting and developing their businesses to encourage more women to become entrepreneurs; achieving harmonization between work and family life.

Keywords: Gender, Paid-employment, Self-employment, Wage Gap, Quantile Regression, Cameroon