An assessment of the impact of sticky floors and glass ceilings in Lebanon

Abstract

Understanding earning gaps prevailing among genders is related to the efficiency in the labor market. Arguing that skills, productivity of individuals, and their commitment to work will ultimately determine individuals incomes sounds too naïve to explain the earnings differential between males and females. In fact, discrimination against females could occur at different stages of their career path. The wage gap is apparent at the top (glass ceiling) as well as at the bottom (sticky floors) of wage distribution. This paper intends to explore earning gaps as a function of the characteristics of existing Lebanese human capital and labor productivity in selected white-collar jobs within a large institution of the service industry. Outcomes of the research will lead to explore the impact of automatic stabilizers or self-correcting mechanism in the Lebanese labor market to reduce gender disparity and to discuss whether government intervention is called for.