1. Introduction and Motivation Prevalence of gender wage gap is a common feature of labour markets in almost all developing countries. Earlier research using Bangladesh labour force survey(LFS) data for 1999-2000 and 2009-10 found presence of significant gender wage gap in the labour market of the country. The 2009-10 data shows that average hourly gender wage gap in Bangladesh was to the tune of about 20.0 per cent. In this backdrop the ILO report entitled‘Global Wage Report 2018/19: What lies behind gender pay gaps’ has raised a lot of interest since the study, using LFS 2016-17 data, found that factor-weighted average hourly gender wage gap in Bangladesh was a reverse 4.7 per cent i.e.; average wage of women was found to be 4.7 per cent higher than that of men. Similarly, the report also found reverse median gender wage gap of 3.6 per cent for Bangladesh. The study makes an attempt to dive deep into the explanatory factors in this connection and proposes and tests alternative hypothesis in this regard. As may be noted, the pervasive nature of gender wage gap in the labour market has been attracting increasing attention of both policymakers and development practitioners worldwide. It is argued that not only is gender wage gap not acceptable from a moral and societal point of view, reducing this gap is also important from the perspective of incentivising greater participation of women in the labour market which, in turn, will foster economic growth and promote socio-economic development. It is also to be recalled that equality between men and women has been enshrined in the constitution of Bangladesh. Article 28(1) of the constitution states:“The State shall not discriminate against any citizens on grounds of religion, race, casts, sex, or place of birth”. However, whether equality in terms of wages has been achieved in Bangladesh labour market remains an issue that demands evidence-based answer. In this backdrop, the ILO study findings ought to be subjected to a closer scrutiny which is the objective of this study. Without doubt, greater and equitable participation of women is a sign of maturity of an economy. For example, Young(1995) found that the growth miracle in South Korea owed significantly to the considerable increase in female labour force participation in the country’s labour market. Similarly, Klasen and Lamanna(2009) found that a rise in female labour force participation contributes to economic growth and development in a significant way. Using simulation techniques based on the Solow(1956) growth model, Sinha(2017) estimated that if, over a five year period, there is an increase of 11.0 per cent in female labour force participation, then, on average, this will add one percentage point to Bangladesh’s GDP growth for each of the subsequent years. From an opposite perspective, research findings also indicate that gender inequality has adverse implications for growth and this could be a major hindrance to economic growth of countries(Schober & Winter-Ebmer, 2011). Rahman et al.(2018) found positive correlation between reduction in wage inequality and job creation in the Bangladesh labour market context. In fine, there is strong research evidence that higher female labour force participation contributes not only to an inclusive development process but also to higher economic growth. Thus, both realisation of untapped potentials of women’s contribution and inclusiveness of growth are factors of interest here. Thus, it is not surprising that issues of gender based wage disparity occupy an important place in labour market discourse, both in developing and developed country contexts. However, the issues Page| 1