Abstract

ARAUJO FREITAS, Alan. Gender Wage Inequality Measured Using Quantile Regression: The Impact of Human, Cultural and Social Capital. Rev. mex. cienc. polít. soc [online]. 2015, vol.60, n.223, pp.287-315. ISSN 0185-1918.

The average wage gap between men and women is a well-known fact in Brazilian and international literature. However, gender based wage inequality in income distribution is less known. The main goal of this work is to evaluate income inequality of individuals who are in the labor market based on some conditioning factors which are visible along the wage distribution curve between men and women, namely: human capital, integration into work, social capital, cultural capital and marital status. The following questions guide the study: To what extent women's higher education level can reduce the gender wage gap? Is it possible to argue that as we advance in the wage structure, sexual differences tend to increase? To answer these questions we used data from the Instituto do Milênio, 2008. The results showed that as long as the involved elements are maintained constant, women earned on average 54% of men's wages. This gender wage inequality has been practically the same for the last fifty years, as it was then estimated at 60%. The last percentile of wage income showed greater gender inequality. At the 99th wage percentile, women earn 44% of what is earned by men.

Keywords : inequality; wage gap; gender; quantile regression; human capital; cultural capital; social capital.