Discussion Paper No. 04/97 THE GENDER PAY GAP IN RUSSIA DURING THE TRANSITION

This paper attempts to explore the link between rising wage dispersion in Russia over the transitional period and the gender pay gap. The work of Blau and Khan (1996) emphasizes a role for ‘wage structure’ in the determination of the gender pay gap although some interpretational issues concerning their methodology have been raised recently by Suen (1997). The analysis presented here identifies increased wage dispersion as an agent for the widening of the gender pay gap in Russia, but the observed gap itself was seen to exhibit some degree of stability over the four year period covered. A tentative conclusion offered is that the transitional process has been approximately neutral towards the average Russian woman in terms of her relative pay position. Author’s Affiliation: School of Social Sciences and Sussex European Institute University of Sussex Falmer Brighton BN1 9QN United Kingdom e-mail: [email protected] Preliminary Draft Comments Welcome November 1997 The comments of Mike Sumner are gratefully acknowledged.