The Influence Of Family Factors On Gender Wage Gap

With the decreasing occupational gender segregation and the gradual convergence of male and female education levels and educational returns,human capital and the distribution of occupations and industries cannot explain the widening gender wage gap in China.With CFPS data in 2016,this article exposes the effect of typical characteristics of family such as marriage,children and division of housework on the effect of gender wage gap.After successfully solving the endogenous problem,we find that housework and motherhood have significantly negative effects on female wage rate.Women do 17 hours housework per week on average,which reduced their weekly wage by 34%.Children reduce mother’s weekly wage by 8.5%.Besides,marriage indirectly affects female wages through children and housework.Compared to unmarried women,married women did an extra seven hours of housework a week,reducing their weekly wage rate by 14%.As for men,there is a "marriage premium" effect,although housework time also affects their wages,the impact is far less than that of women.Oaxaca decompose also shows that family characteristics,particularly "domestic work hours",are the main cause of the gender wage gap excluding gender discrimination.Besides,family characteristics may cause greater gender wage difference in low-income class.Last,we find that housework has a threshold effect for both men and women,and the threshold is about 10.5 hours.This paper further discusses the problem of "housework ",and finds that housework time will affect personal wages by affecting personal labor decision-making.there is a nonlinear relationship between housework and wage rate;housework has a threshold effect on men and women,and the threshold value is about 10.5 hours.The heterogeneity analysis of family characteristics shows that family characteristics may lead to a greater gender wage gap for low-income groups,while the heterogeneity between urban and rural areas and between rural areas is smaller.This study proves that family factor is the main reason for the persistence of the current gender wage gap,which provides a direction for explaining and solving the stagnant gender wage gap in the past decade.At the same time,this paper can also explain the changes of the current family structure and labor participation rate.