Male-female income inequality by employment status in canada

Abstract

This research purports the analysis and application of a measure of income inequality between income distributions to account for the relative income differential between populations of economic units. Parametric and distribution-free formulas are deduced and a statistical test of hypothesis is introduced to decide whether or not there is a significant income differential between distributions. This theoretical framework is applied in order to study the male-famale income differential in Canada during the 1969-1979 period. It deals with the following socio-economic attributes: (1) individuals that worked 50-52 weeks; (2) individuals that worked 1-49 weeks; (3) individuals that did not work; (4) employees; and (5) employers. The income differential ratio D1 (used as a measure of the income inequality between distributions) and the Gini ratio (used as a measure of the income inequality within a distribution) provide an important synthesis of the male-female income distribution structure.