The Gender Wage Gap in Cambodia

Over the past decade, Cambodia has enjoyed robust economic growth as well as notable improvements in socioeconomic development, including a decline in poverty and improvements in education and health. However, women continue to earn less than men at the headline level. This paper uses the latest available data (2014, 2017, and 2019) and examines changes in the trends in wage gap from 2014 and 2019 and its underlying contributors. Like previous studies, results presented in this paper point to unobservable factors, most likely including gender discrimination, as the primary contributors fueling the labor market's gender wage gap. This study also finds some improvements in gender gap reduction attributable to observable factors from 2014 to 2019, including improvements in bridging the gender gaps in education, types of occupation, industry, and workplace. These findings reinforce the call for policy measures aimed at further reducing the gender gap.