Gender and Ethnicity in Bolivia, Ecuador and Guatemala

In this article, we examine the structure of gender and ethnic wage gaps, and the distribution of both, paid and unpaid work in Bolivia, Ecuador and Guatemala. The wage gap is assessed by quantile decomposition methods and the classical Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition. The determinants of hours allocated to paid and unpaid work activities between gender groups, are estimated by seemingly unrelated regressions. The results indicate that women are highly discriminated in the job market and undertake most of the domestic activities of the households. The indigenous population also suffers from discrimination, but the wage gap is mostly explained by the difference in endowments. The wider gap at the lower tail of the distribution suggest the presence of stickly floors effects for both, women and indigenous population.