DT 21 - 23 Gender pay gap in a highly qualified sector: evidence from administrative data

This paper studies the existence of gender pay gaps within the highly skilled profession
of medicine in Uruguay. We focus on understanding whether the way an occupation is structured may impact income equality. We use administrative data from the Human Resources
Control and Analysis System (SCARH) database, published by the Ministry of Public Health
of Uruguay. We estimate the gross and conditional gender pay gaps among physicians for the
entire period between 2008 and 2018. Furthermore, we evaluated two potential mechanisms
that could explain part of the differences in physician earnings, specifically horizontal segregation (the concentration of women in certain specialities with lower salaries) and vertical
segregation (the under representation of women in top hierarchical positions). Our results
indicate differences in labour income between female and male physicians, and that horizontal and vertical segregation play a role in explaining these gaps.

JEL Classification: J16, J24, J31, J7

Key words: gender pay gaps, highly prestigious occupations, physicians, segregation