Wage gap between genders in the Brazilian public sector

Author(s)

Daniela Verzola Vaz

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Economia
• Defense date: 2010-04-14

Examining board members

Rodolfo Hoffmann; Alexandre Gori Maia; Ana Lucia Kassouf; Eugenia Troncoso Leone; Luiz Guilherme Dácar da Silva Scorzafave

• Advisor: Rodolfo Hoffmann

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to study the wage gap between genders observed in the Brazilian public sector, analyzing in which extent it can be attributed to the differences in productive endowments between workers or to the particular occupational and sectoral profile according to which women are incorporated in the work force or, finally, to gender discrimination - whether occupational, vertical or wage. The central hypothesis we intend to verify are i) despite the concerns of the public sector with the adoption of more transparent recruitment practices and with an egalitarian treatment to members of the same career, the female segregation into the occupations and the sectors of a lower pay grade is also observed in public organizations; ii) the increasing share of female participation in public service did not prevent the persistence of occupational gender segregation in the recent years. To reach such purpose, this work is structured in five chapters: i) the first one aims to identify the productive endowments and the personal characteristics that influence the probability of an employee of the tertiary sector in Brazil becoming a civil servant, highlighting the differences between genders; ii) the second chapter analyzes women's representativeness in the various sectors of public employment between 1992 and 2008, considering the changes observed in public sector, regarding the contributions in the branches of economic activities, and also the increasing female participation in the work force; iii) in the third chapter it is analyzed how the male-female earning differentials - favorable to the first ones - evolved between 1992 and 2008; their causes are also investigated; iv) the fourth chapter is a more detailed study of occupational segmentation between males and females, showing its evolution between 1995 and 2008 with the help of the computation of segregation indexes; v) finally, the last chapter treats the glass ceiling phenomenon, through the revision of recent papers and the analysis of two particular cases: the civil servants at central administration that occupy nomination-only positions and the professors at the University of Campinas. (AU)