Occupational Segregation, Wage Discrimination, and Impact on Poverty In Rural Bangladesh

This study quantifies occupational segregation and wage discrimination in rural labour market of Bangladesh. Wage equations for seven employment categories was estimated applying Heckmanís two-step procedure. Multinomial logit analysis was applied to estimate occupational attainment for males from a set of personal characteristics and then an occupational distribution for females was simulated. Data set used was a part of an eight-village census undertaken by the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex. Ideally the capacity to transform time and strength of labour into income between men and women should differ due to the difference in productivity. This analysis shows that more than seventy per cent of total gender pay gap remains unjustified and is due mainly to the concentration to the low paid work owing to job discrimination. Development programmes in the rural sector have achieved some success in bringing poor women into the paid job but failed to reduce within job discrimination. Attempts to reduce poverty will not bring the desired goal unless women have free access to paid work and the unjustified job segregation and pay discrimination are considerably reduced.