Purpose
This paper analyses the magnitude of the gender wage disparity in the public and private sectors in Mauritius across both mean differentials and overall wage distribution. We then decomposed the gender wage differential using the Oaxaca and Blinder (1973) decomposition technique.

Design/methodology/approach
The study uses cross sectional data from the Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Budget Survey (CMPHS), from 2006 to 2013. The sample size on average is around 15,000 households surveyed per year.

Findings
Our results reveal that that gender wage differentials are prevalent in both economic sectors, however the disparity is more pronounced in the private sector. In addition, the differences in wages are larger at the bottom compared to the top end of the wage distribution suggesting the presence of sticky floors. Lastly, we observe that the unexplained wage gap (discrimination) is higher in the private sector than in public sector across the years.

Originality/value
The literature on the gender wage gap in Africa is small. This paper adds to the existing literature on gender wage differential with an analysis of the gender wage disparity across the public and private sectors in Mauritius