China’s Labor Market Gender Inequality

The People’s Republic of China’s labor market gender inequality is an interesting problem from the economic and social standpoint. It is generally accepted that economic growth and gender pay equality are positively correlated, since the improvement of work conditions and technology tend to diminish the productivity differences related to personal characteristics. In addition, improved education equalizes the opportunities and eliminates prejudices. However, in the case of the People’s Republic of China over 1990s and 2000s, the wage gap has increased (Chi and Li 2014; J.-W. Lee and Wie 2017), the labor force participation gap has slightly increased, and the employment gap has not substantially decreased (World Bank 2006). The present paper will review and comment on the existing literature while exploring the characteristics of gender inequality in the PRC’s labor market. In particular, this paper attempts to determine to what extent gender discrimination impacts gender inequality in relative pay, employment, and labor participation.