Inter-industry wage differentials and the gender wage gap in Belgium

This paper simultaneously analyses the gender wage gap and the inter-industry wage differentials in the Belgian private sector. On the basis of the 1995 Structure of Earning Survey, we estimate the inter-industry wage differentials by gender and the gender wage gap by industry. We find significant interindustry wage differentials for men and women, even when controlling for a large number of productivity-related factors. These differentials are highly correlated but significantly different. An Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973) decomposition, realised at the Nace three-digit level, shows that around one-tenth of the overall gender wage gap (on average women earn 22% less than men) is due to industry effects.