DIFFERENCES IN INCOME DISTRIBUTIONS FOR MEN AND WOMEN IN POLAND – AN ANALYSIS USING DECOMPOSITION TECHNIQUES

Abstract

In the paper, we compare income distributions in Poland, taking into account gender differences. The gender pay gap can only be partially explained by differences in men’s and women’s characteristics. The unexplained part of the gap is usually attributed to the wage discrimination. The objective of the study is to extend the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition procedure to different quantile points along the income distribution. We utilize such decomposition methods as the residual imputation approach, the reweighting approach and the RIF-regression method to describe differences between the incomes of men and women along the two distributions. We evaluate the strength of the influence of personal characteristics onto the various parts of the income distributions. The analysis is based on data from the EU-SILC data for Poland in 2014.