THE GENDER WAGE GAP AMONG ITALIAN EMPLOYEES - EVIDENCES FROM THE ISFOL PLUS DATABASE

In this paper, we measure the amount of gender discrimination in the Italian labour market, using the ISFOL PLUS database and covering the period between 2005 and 2010. We adopt a quantile regression decomposition methodology, in order to measure the gender wage gap across the entire distribution of earnings. Moreover, we test the robustness of our estimates by comparing the quantile regression decomposition results when more dependent variables are added to the model. Finally, by comparing the results obtained from a random effect regression to those obtained using the Hausman-Taylor regression model, we test whether the estimated level of discrimination changes when correlation of time varying characteristics to the unobservable individual heterogeneity is allowed. The results show that, other things being equal, female employees earn around 10% less than men employees. This percentage is increasing with wages, sometimes reaching levels higher than 20% toward the top of the earnings distribution. The gap in earnings is increasing with age.