Economic Transformation and the Gender Earnings Gap in Urban China

The gender wage gap and its development in urban China is analysed utilising two large scale surveys covering 10 provinces for the years 1988 and 1995. The results indicate that from an international perspective, the gender wage gap in urban China appears to be relatively small. It is, however, increasing. Decompositions based on estimated regression-models show that somewhat less than half of the average gender wage gap can be attributed to differences in variables but much less of its increase. The earnings situation of young women and women with limited education has especially deteriorated if compared to men having the same characteristics