Existing studies of the gender wage gap in Sri Lanka show that ‘discrimination’ in the labour market, rather than differences in productive characteristics, account for a large fraction of the gender wage differential. The present study contributes to the literature by (a) analyzing changes in and determinants of the wage gender differential during a period when employment opportunities for Sri Lanka were expanding rapidly along with their labour force participation, and (b) using a superior methodology than has been used so far in estimates of earnings functions for Sri Lanka.