We employ unconditional quantile-decomposition methods to analyze the gender wage gap (<Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">gwg) in the urban region of twelve Latin American countries. Using data from harmonized household surveys we decompose the <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">gwg into an explained component (differences in human capital) and an unexplained component (different rates of return to human capital). We find evidence of sticky floors (larger <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">gwg at the tenth percentile than at the median) and glass ceilings (larger <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">gwg at the ninetieth percentile than at the median). The former are more frequent and their magnitude is generally larger. Working women are more educated than working men all along the wage distribution, which partially hides the ‘unexplained’ pay difference. Finally, we find that poorer countries and countries with more income inequality have higher <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">gwg at the tenth percentile of the wage distribution. Richer countries and countries with lower inequality present larger <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">gwg at the ninetieth percent of the wage distribution. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
