Wage disparities in Polish voivodeships – analysis with use of popular inequality measures

Abstract

The paper presents estimates of wage inequality measures in Polish voivodships in 2014 with a brief analysis of them. Unidentified unit data of the Central Statistical Office regarding gross earnings and collected for the survey of Structure of wages and salaries by occupations in October 2014 were used for the research. The concepts of the Lorenz curve and the generalized Lorenz curve were used as the analysis tool. The analysis was supplemented with estimates of popular inequality measures – including the Gini coefficient and the Atkinson coefficient as well as the social welfare function (Sen index). In addition, a simple de-composition was also presented due to the Gini coefficient. Analysis with use of the Lorenz curves showed that in some cases these curves intersect each other. This makes it impossible to simply draw conclusions about the order of these distributions and is a frequently encountered problem in empirical research. As it turns out, the rankings generated by the Gini coefficient, the Atkinson coefficient and the Sen index are relatively consistent. The regions with the highest level of earnings inequalities includes among others: mazowieckie, dolnośląskie, śląskie, pomorskie and małopolskie.