Investigating the gender wage gap in Vietnam by quantile regression: sticky floor or glass ceiling

Abstract

Inequality between men and women in the labor market is one of the issues that is of great interest in labor economics. The sticky floor effect occurs when the gender wage gap widens at the lower tail of the wage distribution. The glass ceiling effect in wage exists if the gender wage gap at the top of the wage distribution is wider than other positions. This study uses the dataset of VHLSS2014 and adopts quantile regression to investigate the existence of glass ceiling and sticky floor in the Vietnam’s labor market. The overall results obtained of the entire sample show that there is sticky floor effect but no glass ceiling in the Vietnam’s labor market. However, the results are different when it comes to each labor group. In terms of urban and rural areas, the sticky floor exists, but the glass ceiling does not in both areas. In terms of state and private sectors, while the glass ceiling exists in state sector, the stick floor is only present in the private sector.