4.2 Distributional Comparisons Across Regional Areas
We next discuss our results comparing the wage distribution across the five ‘regional’ areas. First, we present the graphical analysis for these results and then the regression analysis.
4.2.1 Graphical Analysis
Figure 4 graphs the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentile and mean of the Real Hourly Wage Distribution for Wage/Salary Workers in each year for the five ‘regional’ areas. Auckland (and Wellington) have higher unadjusted wage/salary wages across the entire wage distribution. The magnitude of these differences are larger at the upper-end of the wage distribution. For example, unadjusted differences are $0.70-$1.40 at the 25th percentile, $1.00-$2.25 at the median, and $1.70-$3.10 at the 75th percentile.
Figure 5 graphs the 10th, 25th, 50th (median), 75th, and 90th percentile and mean of the Real Hourly Wage Distribution for All Workers in each year for the five ‘regional’ areas. Wages for the self-employed have greater variance leading to a reduction in percentiles at the median and below, but an increase in the 75th and 90th percentile in all areas. Unadjusted wage differences between Auckland and other regions are generally larger at all points in the wage distribution when including the self-employed. The difference in unadjusted wages between Auckland and Rural is much larger at the 10th and 25th percentile of the distribution but smaller at the 75th percentile.
- Figure 4 – Real Hourly Wage Distribution for Wage/Salary Workers Across Regional Areas
-
- Figure 5 – Real Hourly Wage Distribution for All Workers Across Regional Areas
-
