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Contents Introduction

The purpose of the study is to analyze the inequality along the wage distribution in Vietnam in two important aspects using different waves of the household survey during 2002-2014: (1) gender wage gap and (2) wage gap by firms’ ownership (SOEs and nonSOEs). We focus on the formal employments and further divide the sample by educational level, age profile, occupational type, and industry when necessary.

In the first work, we find evidence of both severer inequality and improving equality. In general, the total gap appears to be persistent, mainly because of gender discrimination in the price of skills. However, the total gap is not constant throughout the distribution and is wider in the right (upper) tail. We identify several different items of evidence for a sticky floor and a glass ceiling for the total gap and price gap in particular years, but there is no consistent trend. Meanwhile, there is an increase in wage equality over time as the wage gap has tended to narrow (except in 2010). The price gap has decreased among those aged 15–35, among skilled workers, and those in the manufacturing sector, and has becomes insignificant among those aged 46–55 and those in the service sector.

In the second work, we examined the transition of SOEs from a wage perspective, by decomposing the wage distribution difference between SOE and non-SOE employees during the period 2002–2014, using four Vietnamese household surveys of the same design and the same sample selection. Although SOE employees received higher pay in 2002 as a result of the characteristics difference and residuals, the coefficients difference was minimal along the wage distribution during 2002–2014. The characteristics difference fell over time at middle and middle-to-high wage distribution groups. University graduates were the main contributor to the endowments difference. However, by 2014, the residuals difference vanished and the pay schemes between SOEs and nonSOEs had converged.