GENDER WAGE DIFFERENTIALS IN THE MALAYSIAN

Studies have found that on average males earn substantially higher wages than females. Females are paid lower than their male counterparts due to several reasons such as educational attainment, job characteristics and types of industries. Even after accounting for variations in these productivity- related characteristics, gender wage differentials may still prevail as a result of discriminatory practice by employers. This paper attempts to measure the determinants of wage differentials by gender in the Malaysian manufacturing sector. The analysis is based on a survey of 2,046 workers in six major industries conducted in 1999. These are the electrical and electronics, textile, wood-based, transport equipment, food and chemical industries. The determinants of wage differentials are obtained by using the coefficients of the earnings functions. These factors are decomposed into several categories, namely, demographic factors, human capital, job characteristics and industry characteristics. The results reveal that demographic factors and human capital variables play a major role in determining the wage differentials by gender. The divergence coefficient, which might include discriminatory practice by the employers, is also quite small