The Migrant- and Gender Wage Gaps in Sweden : Evidence from a Quantile Decomposition

Sammanfattning: This thesis investigates the migrant- and gender wage gaps for female immigrants in the Swedish labour market for 2005. By using Swedish microdata on income and taking advantage of decomposition methods, in particular the Blinder-Oaxaca (1973) and the Recentered Influence Function, proposed by Firpo, Fortin and Lemieux (2018), this thesis analyses the pay gaps at the mean and across the distribution. Further, this thesis explores what factors that contribute to the gaps at different percentiles. The results indicate that immigrant women face the largest disadvantage in terms of earnings in the Swedish labour market. The earnings gap, both at the mean and across the distribution, is largest when immigrant females are compared against native males, followed by immigrant males and lastly, female natives. Additionally, the gender earnings gaps are large at the bottom of the distribution, indicating a sticky floor effect for female immigrants. Weaker evidence of a glass ceiling is found when comparing foreign-born females and male natives. Differences in returns for the same pay-determining characteristics explain the majority of the sticky floor and the rest of the gap at all percentiles between foreign-born females and native- and foreign-born males. The variation across the gender wage distributions indicates that there is significant heterogeneity in the Swedish labour market, both how earnings are determined and how different attributes are rewarded between the groups.