The Effect Of Marriage On Gender Wage Gaps

Since the economic reform and open up,with the prosperity and development of the socialist market economy,combined with the transformation of the system and the dramatic change of the social structure,thanks to the national policy of family planning birth control and compulsory education,China's family fertility level has declined,while the education level of the new generation of women has increased significantly.With the general improvement of education level,some women's knowledge and skills even exceed men's.On the one hand,the promotion of educational background has greatly broadened the scope of work women can choose,on the other hand,it has also promoted the career development and income promotion.At the same time,the gender gap in wages is also emerging,Under the system of market economy,the phenomenon of "different pay for the same work" still can be seen everywhere.Homogeneous workers get different levels of wages only because of gender differences,and even " Ceiling effect" appears in some areas.The higher the education level of women,the greater the obstacles they encounter in promotion,and Women's wages often do not match the level of higher education they receive.In the light of global improvement on theoretical and empirical researches about gender pay gaps,the present situation of wage differences in different gender and the impacts marriage would have on will be taken into discussion.In this article,CGSS2015 data is used to do OLS regression and quantile regression on total samples,male and female samples,unmarried and married samples.Simultaneously,the direct effects that marriage has on the gender pay gap are discussed from two factors,one is the average salary and the other is wage distribution.To figure out the indirect effect marriage has on pay,how other factors affect and change wages,under the intervention of marriage variables,will also be verified.Finally,it is demonstrated that marriage premium has significant impacts at the bottom of salary allocation.Married men's wages higher than unmarried men,while married women's wages lower than unmarried women,which means marriage can enlarge the gap of average wages in different genders.Regarding direct and indirect influences marriage has on the gender pay gap,it is more prominent and common among middle and upper classes.Besides,this article points out the "floor effect" of gender pay difference in the wage distribution and evaluates what the different influence other factors have on wage distribution,like fertility,education,and length of employment among married and unmarried people.