The Gender Earnings Differential in the Russian Transition Economy

Using data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS), the first nationally representative household survey in the Russian Federation, the author examines the gender earnings differential in Russia during the country's transition to a market economy. The gender wage ratio is calculated at 71.7%, and most of the difference is found to be attributable to occupational and industrial employment segregation by gender. The author argues that the lower pay in “female” industries and occupations is determined by the interaction of the institutional factors inherited from the Soviet past with the forces of the emerging market.