Gender earnings differences in Latvia during transition

Transition and Beyond: Women on the Labour Market in the Context of Changing Social Norms. A new FROGEE policy brief on the situation in the region, containing an overview of the situation in Latvia written by Anna Zasova (BICEPS).

After a short overview of women’s position on the labour market, this brief presents a simple exercise focusing on the top of the earnings distribution, which illustrates the development of gender earnings differences in Latvia since 1996. The results suggest that Latvian women are  well-represented among top earners: the share of women in the top earnings percentile is about 30%. This share was growing until mid-2000s, but since then it has been gradually declining . The gender gap in median earnings is the largest at the top end of the distribution. We also show that older workers faced the largest gender earnings gap in 1996, but it has been steadily declining since then.

The full Report is available here.

Reports from Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Poland, Ukraine and Russia are available in English and the national languages here.

About FROGEE Policy Briefs

FROGEE Policy Briefs is a special series aimed at providing overviews and the popularization of economic research related to gender equality issues. Debates around policies related to gender equality are often highly politicized. We believe that using arguments derived from the most up to date research-based knowledge would help us build a more fruitful discussion of policy proposals and in the end achieve better outcomes.

The aim of the briefs is to improve the understanding of research-based arguments and their implications, by covering the key theories and the most important findings in areas of special interest to the current debate. The briefs start with short general overviews of a given theme, which are followed by a presentation of country-specific contexts, specific policy challenges, implemented reforms and a discussion of other policy options.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in policy briefs and other publications are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.