Do Thai Women Earn Less than Men in Thailand?

Abstract

Using the Labor Force Surveys, this paper examines trends and heterogeneity in hourly earnings on gender pay gaps among wage workers in Thailand, as well as decomposition for gender wage gap. The decomposition explains impacts on the declined gender wage gap from heterogeneity in characteristics of wage workers and from unequal wage structures. It also examines counterfactual decompositions to investigate the impact of factors including gender characteristic on the distributional changes in wage. The analytical results provide a number of policy implications. Good access to quality education and job-related trainings along with effective reforms of the institutional framework are important to eliminate gender discrimination in wages.