Regional Differences in Gender Wage Gaps in Poland New Estimates Based on Harmonized Data for Wages

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to estimate the gender wage gap in Poland and in
the 16 NUTS2 Polish regions in 2010, and to verify the predictions of the spatial
monopsony model for Poland with a newly created, harmonized database for
wages of individuals in Poland. According to the model, the unexplained part
of the gender wage gap, identified with wage discrimination, tend to be lower in
regions with more competition between employers.
The results of the analyses performed in this paper show that in more urbanized
regions the average wages are higher than in the rural ones. In each of the
16 NUTS2 Polish regions, women earn less than men. Raw differences in
wages between men and women are largest in the most urbanized regions
but a significant part of the differences in those regions can be explained by
differences in workers’ characteristics, especially by different sectoral structure
of employment. The part of the gender wage gap which remains unexplained,
and in the literature is commonly attached to discrimination, is the highest
in rural regions of Eastern Poland in line with the predictions of the spatial
monopsony model.