Wage difference based on gender discrimination and feminization of poverty: The case of Turkey

Wage differentiation in Turkey is mostly due to human capital differences and discrimination. The fact that discrimination is experienced especially between the sexes, women have lower education and experience than men due to discrimination, women remain out of the labour market despite having the same human capital as men, lower positions than they deserve and employment in professions deepens the pay differentiation. This causes women to have the largest share of the poverty rates experienced in Turkey. When looking at the distribution of the level of income within the fundamental determinants of poverty among the sexes, it appears that it is determined at lower levels in women compared to men, increases women poverty and ultimately impacts on the emergence of the state feminization of poverty in Turkey. The study consists of three parts. In the first section, the conditions affecting female poverty and wage differentiation were analyzed in conceptual and theoretical framework. The second section examined the state of wage differentiation and women's poverty in Turkey and used statistical data through figures and tables for analysis. In the third section, the status of gender pay differentiation was estimated econometrically for both years using data from the Household Budget Survey for 2003 and 2019 published by the Turkish Statistical Institution. According to the expected results, the evolving pay differentiation against women in Turkey continued to be effective from 2003 to 2019. This indicates that women's poverty in Turkey is still a major problem.