The paper uses the Philippine Labor Force Survey for the years 2003 to 2005
to examine the sensitivity of the gender wage gap during periods of economic expansion and
slowdown. The findings reveal that in 2003, male workers received a wage premium by 8
percentage points for managers and 13 percentage points for rank and file employees in the
secondary and tertiary industries. There is strong evidence that gender differences in wages is
attributable to discrimination even as the endowment effect is mostly negative indicating that
women workers bring in better human capital attributes but remained to be less compensated.
The results show that both the gender wage gap and the discrimination component of the gap
narrow down with accelerated economic growth and widen with a slackening of growth. The
pay gap is more responsive to an economic contraction than to an expanded growth and for
the secondary sector than for the tertiary sector.