A Double Loss?

This paper investigates the existence of a double-negative effect on the wages of immigrant females participating in the Dutch labour market. To carry out our analysis we use a large cross-sectional dataset, i.e. the 2002 round of the LSO, that covers approximately 60.000 employees. Our regression results show that the wages are positively related to individual age, seniority and education. Furthermore, we find that, controlling for a variety of other characteristics, female employees earn less than their male counterparts. Our wage decomposition results suggest that while a substantial portion of this gap can be explained by observable characteristics, a small but significant fraction remains unaccounted for. Thus we find some evidence for the hypothesis that immigrant women might face discrimination in the Dutch labour market.