How does the daily commute contribute to the gender wage gap? The case of Belgium

This master thesis analyzes the magnitude of gender wage discrimination in Belgium and assesses the role of the commuting distance on the gender gap based on individual-level data from the Vacature Salaris Investigations for 2008, 2010 and 2012. It also compares the situation of Belgium with other European countries using data from the European Working Conditions Surveys (EWCS) for 2015. I find that the average man has a 18.69% higher weighted gross wage than the average woman and commutes 6.24 more kilometers, which corresponds to a 27.24% commuting difference. Based on an econometric model, I show that the difference in commuting distance explains 3.8% of the gender wage gap, controlling for the number of years of working experience and the level of education. Ceteris paribus, going from the average commuting distance of women, (16.66 kilometers), to the average distance of men (22.90 kilometers) would increase the monthly gross wage by 0.65%. Comparing the results for Belgium with other European countries, I show that even though the average commuting distance for Belgium is higher than the overall sample constituted of 35 countries, the wage return of commuting in Belgium is relatively weak compared to neighbor countries like Germany, France, and the Netherlands.