The Determinants of Gender Differences in Income in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

The present study employs 1993 Continuous Sample Survey of the Population data for Trinidad and Tobago to investigate the causes of gender income differentials. The findings suggest that such differentials are not well explained by differences in levels of human capital and other measured factors valued by the labour market. This result is robust to the disaggregation of the data into African, Indian and Other ethnic groups thereby raising the possibility of gender discrimination. African and Indian women's incomes would increase by over 20 per cent with the returns to the measured factors of their male, ethnic counterparts. Women would benefit from having men's industry distribution of jobs, but not men's occupational distribution. African women appear to be significantly more disadvantaged relative to their male counterparts than are Indian or Other women.Gender Income Differentials, Determinants, Population, Gender Discrimination, Distribution of Jobs, Trinidad and Tobago,

Influences on the gender wage gap of Trinidad and Tobago

“…Bellony et al (2010) found that in Barbados men earn between 14 and 27 per cent more than women, and between 8 and 17 per cent more than the average females' wages in Jamaica. Notably an earlier study using 1993 data for Trinidad and Tobago by Olsen and Coppin (2001) found that there was an earning differential of 19 per cent between the sexes. Olsen and Coppin (2001) focused heavily on the influence of race on the earnings of the population, finding that women of African descent were more disadvantaged compared to their male counterparts, than were women of Indian or Other ethnicity.…”

Decomposing gender inequalities in self-assessed health status in Liberia

“…In India, Singh et al [10] highlights that women reported worse cognitive health than men and that education, marital status, caste, religion, tobacco consumption and chronic health status contributed to the reduction in gender gap. Differential gender access to education and income opportunities [14,15] tend to disadvantage women in some societies and exacerbate the gender differences in health. Education is associated with many factors that have a significant impact on health-seeking behaviour, reproductive behaviour, use of contraception, and maternal and child health and nutrition [16,17].…”

Gender Earnings Gaps in the Caribbean: Evidence from Barbados and Jamaica

“…While the empirical literature on gender wage gaps is copious (see Weichselbaumer and Winter-Ebmer, 2005;Blau and Kahn, 2003), only a limited number of studies have examined this theme for Caribbean countries. 1 In a few studies (Scott, 1992;Terrell, 1992;Hotchkiss and Moore, 1996;Coppin, 1996;Olsen and Coppin, 2001;Sookram and Watson, 2008) gender issues in labor markets are investigated for Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Scott (1992) finds women earnings are on average 58 percent of the earnings of men in the Jamaican labor market.…”

“…Coppin (1996) investigates the gender wage gap for Barbados using the 1994 Continuous Household Sample Survey (CHSS) and finds female-male earnings ratio of 87 percent. 2 Olsen and Coppin (2001) utilize the 1993 Continuous Sample Survey of the Population (CSSP) to estimate the gender wage gap for Trinidad and Tobago. In Terrell (1992) reference is made to the female-male earnings ratio of 87 percent for Haiti, derived from a 1987 survey of large-scale enterprises in the capital city, Port-au-Prince.…”