Labour Market Discrimination in Ghana: A Gender Dimension

Abstract

Gender discrimination has consistently been a subject of national and international concern over a long period of time. The book basically sets out to measure the extent and changing trend of occupational segregation by sex and analyse gender wage differentials and find out whether this smacks of gender wage discrimination. Drawing on the census and household survey datasets, and applying four different segregation indices the book found a generally low and declining degree of sex segregation of occupation among paid-employed workers while a higher and an increasing trend of sex segregation of occupation were observed among self-employed workers. The book also found wages of females to be lower than that of males in the labour market as a whole, and within most broad occupations. The empirical results revealed larger gender wage differentials in favour of men in self-employment than in paid-employment. Men in lower-paid female occupations are marginally worse off relative to men in male dominated occupations while women in better paid male occupations are rather worse off relative to women in female occupations. The book also provides evidence to indicate a larger wage gap attributed to favouritism for males and a lower proportion of earning gap emanating from discrimination against females in the labour market as a whole. Discrimination against women accounted for a larger proportion of the gender wage gap among self-employed workers while favouritism for males and discrimination against females were equally matched in paid-employment. The book also confirmed the importance of education in explaining earnings of workers and established higher returns to labour market endowment of females than males.