An Analysis of Women Role in The Thai Labor Market

Abstract

Abstract

                The purposes of this article are to analyze the role of women in the Thai labor market and to examine some factors that affect female wage differentials in urban and rural areas. This study has applied data in 1984 and 2014 surveys of the labor force in Thailand conducted by The National Statistical Office.

                The findings indicate that women’s working status has increased in the formal sector from 15% in 1984 to 60% in 2014 while female employers were rare about 0.3-2.4 % of the total women in the labor market. Urban women work in the service sector mostly, as well as increasingly in the manufacture sector. On the contrary, rural women still work in the agriculture sector. Although the education level of both urban and rural women has improved, the female wage differentials for the two areas are different. The factors affecting on the female wage gap in urban and rural areas were education, firm size, industry, working hours and regional.