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This paper aims to analyse the magnitude of the gender wage disparity in the public and private sectors in Mauritius across both mean differentials and overall wage distribution. The paper then decomposed the gender wage differential using the Oaxaca and Blinder (1973) decomposition technique.

The study uses cross-sectional data from the Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Budget Survey (CMPHS), from 2006 to 2013. The sample size on average is around 12,000 households surveyed per year.

The results reveal that that gender wage differentials are prevalent in both economic sectors; however, the disparity is more pronounced in the private sector. In addition, the differences in wages are larger at the bottom compared to the top end of the wage distribution, suggesting the presence of sticky floors. Lastly, it was observed that the unexplained wage gap (discrimination) is higher in the private sector than in public sector across the years.

The literature on the gender wage gap in Africa is limited. This paper adds to the existing literature on gender wage differential with an analysis of the gender wage disparity across the public and private sectors in Mauritius.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the gender wage differential at different points of the wage distribution. It investigates the existence of glass ceilings and sticky floors in the Mauritian labour market. There is no previous empirical work studying gender inequality in the labour market for the small island economy of Mauritius.

To investigate whether wage differentials are higher at the top or bottom ends of the wage distribution, the authors examine the wage disparities across different quantiles of the wage distribution. The gender wage disparities are assessed using quantile regression and decomposition techniques at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th quantiles. Survey data from the Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Survey from 2006 to 2013 is used.

The results reveal that sticky floors are more pronounced than glass ceilings over the years. Further, for the years 2008, 2010 and 2012, it is noted that at the 75th quantiles, the gender wage differentials started to rise showing glass ceiling effects. The combination of both sticky floors and glass ceilings are characterised by the unexplained factors providing evidence for gender discrimination in the Mauritian labour market.

This is the first study analysing the glass ceilings or sticky floors in the Mauritian labour market. Though the research is limited to Mauritius, the latter being a small island economy can serve as a case study for other island economies and also for the African continent.