Abstract. Gender discrimination can be explained at the level of segregation on the labor market by the employers' perceptions about male and female workforce, by the level of development of a country, employers and employees.

    In any society, people are categorized from the attributes (stereotypical or not) which are supposed to be shared with their own group. Usually these attributes are anticipated based on stereotypes conveyed on behalf of different groups (Goffman, 1974). Stereotypes are those beliefs and opinions about the characteristics of men and women. The features associated with the two groups generally show us not only how men and women are perceived, and also how it should be. Stereotyping can be the basis for the discriminatory treatment in most cases (Linville, Salovey, Fisher, 1986).

    In this article we presented the main theories that can explain the wage discrimination and we analyzed the discriminatory attitudes of gender on the Romanian labor market using the Economic and social cohesion survey.

Keywords: labor market; discrimination; wage.