Gender Wage Differential In Nigeria: A Microeconomic Analysis Using Oaxaca-Blinder Decomposition

Publication Details

Publication Date

10/11/2026

Volume / Issue

Vol 1, Issue 6 (2026)

Article No.

030

Journal

British Journal of Contemporary Research

DOI

https://doi.org/10.67693/BJCR-SWNUBSHX

Received

15 Oct 2026

Views

21

Downloads

11

Abstract

This study looked at gender wage differential in Nigeria with attention to how much of the pay gap can be linked with different workers characteristics and how much remains after these differences are considered. The work used a secondary microeconomic design. Nigeria-specific results from the nationally representative General Household Survey-Panel 2015/2016 were used. The sample covered non-farm employed men and women aged 25 to 55 years, with 2,285 observations in rural Nigeria and 1,515 observations in urban Nigeria. The wage measure was logged hourly pay, obtained from annual labour earnings divided by annual hours of work. Education, potential experience, sector of work, occupation and survey context were the main variables in the wage equations. The Oaxaca-Blinder method was used in the microdata analysis and the Nigeria estimates were reconstructed and interpreted in this study. Recent Nigeria Labour Force Survey statistics were also used to show the present labour-market setting, but they were not mixed with the older wage microdata. The results show a large male wage advantage. The mean log gender pay gap was 0.572 in rural Nigeria and 0.336 in urban Nigeria, which are about 77 percent and 40 percent when changed from log points to percentage form. Observable worker and job characteristics explained 0.399 log points, or 69.72 percent, of the rural gap and 0.272 log points, or 81.09 percent, of the urban gap. The structural part was 0.173 log points in rural Nigeria and 0.063 in urban Nigeria. Education increased the gap in both locations, while occupational sorting was especially important in rural Nigeria. The results also show why a small formal wage sector and very high informality matter for gender pay analysis in Nigeria. The study concludes that equal pay policy alone may not close the gap. Better female access to higher education, higher-paying occupations, formal wage jobs, care support and transparent pay practices are also needed.

License

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License . Free to read, share, and adapt with attribution.