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The views expressed in this paper are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the

views or policies of the Asian Development Bank ADB), or its Board of Governors, or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The countries listed in this paper do not imply any view on ADB's part as to sovereignty or independent status or necessarily conform to ADB's terminology.

GENDER INEQUALITY IN THE PHILIPPINE LABOR MARKET


Dr. Fiona MacPhail Professor of Economics (UNBC) and ADB/RDTA Consultant August 10, 2012

Manila

Workshop on Promoting Gender Equality in the Labor Market for More Inclusive Growth in the Philippines (RDTA)

I: INTRODUCTION: WHY GENDER EQUALITY, EMPLOYMENT AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH?

No decline in poverty, despite economic growth

Source: compiled from ADB (2011) and NSCB. Poverty Statistics.

High rates of poverty, particularly in rural areas and some regions

Source: NSCB. Poverty Statistics.

Employment is important for inclusive growth

Increased employment, particularly for poor people, key to inclusive growth

Inclusive growth is sustained growth that creates jobs, draws the majority into the economic and social mainstream, and continuously reduces mass poverty (NEDA 2011: 18) Goal of decent work is to promote opportunities for all women and men to obtain decent and productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. (ILO 2004, cited in DOLE 2011: 18) No decrease in poverty incidence among the employed (NSCB. Poverty Statistics)

Not only employment but decent work

Why is gender equality important for inclusive growth?


include 50% of the population to reduce poverty women have lower access to employment and decent work than men requires gender equality equal employment and outcomes for men and women
improve wellbeing of women improve labor productivity encourage families to make human capital investments in girls

Objective and Outline

Objective

Analyze dimensions of gender (in)equality in the labor market


trends and patterns of employment; labor market outcomes provide labor market context for strategies to promote gender equality in employment for inclusive growth

Outline of the Presentation


Framework for gender analysis Analysis of gender (in)equality in the labor market Implications for policy

II: FRAMEWORK

What is different?

Assumptions

people are relational (not autonomous) labor behavior influenced gender relations (roles, power) gender relations are dynamic

Analysis of gender inequality takes account of the interaction of


demand for labor (micro and macro levels), supply of labor, as well as, regulations, institutions, and policies in both (unpaid) non-market and market sectors

III: ANALYSIS

Main arguments
1.

2.

3.

4.

Labor force and employment: women have low participation Structural employment change: decline in decent work Patterns of employment: substantial segregation by sex and sticky floors for women Different sectors: employment for women in low, middle and high skill sectors

1. Women have low labor force participation rates, relative to other countries

Notes and Sources: Labor force participation rate, %, All countries 15 years +, KILM online database, www.ilo.org/kilmnet, Table 1a.

Womens low LFPR, relative to men

Source: compiled from BLES. DOLE. Decent Work Indicators. Table 2.

Womens relatively low LFPR puzzling

Declining male-female LFPR gap due to decreasing male LFPR Women have higher education and functional literacy rates, compared to men (Census. Education of women and men, Table 1) Womens rising education levels not associated with increased female LFPR over last decade However,.

Low demand for womens labor


i.

ii.

iii.

Low share of agriculture in GDP and employment, compared to some S. E. Asian countries Lack of land, concentrated land ownership pattern (ADB 2009) increased demand for (male) wage labor Negative correlation between gender wage gap and female LFPR (Corley et al 2005)

Low demand for womens labor (cont)

iv. Relatively small export-oriented manufacturing

Source: compiled from ADB (2011).

Supply constraints

High total fertility rate (births per woman) = 3.0 (in 2009) (ADB 2011, Table 1.17) Presence of children reduces hours of paid work and earnings for women, but not men (Tiefenthaler 1997; Adair et al 2002)

Supply constraints (cont)

Lack of supporting infrastructure and gender equitable domestic and caring work roles 31 % of working age women (2.9% of men) are economically inactive due to household/family duties (BLES. Decent Work Indicators, Table 5)

2. Structural employment change shift to services sector

Source: compiled from BLES. DOLE. Decent Work indicators. Table 1.

Changes in decent work

Positive: an increase in wage employment 2000-10


women: 51 53% men: 5155% however, wage employment formal work

For women: wage employment in the non-agricultural sector only 65% is formal employment (calculated from Heintz 2010: Table 3)

Further qualifications

Decline in real wages

Source: compiled from BLES. DOLE. Decent Work Indicators. Table 3.

Declines in .

share of permanent wage and salary workers & increase in casual workers (Hasan and Jandoc 2009: Table 6) unionization rates for men and women (BLES. Decent Work Indicators, Table 11 )

Decline in industry jobs, women


Distribution of employment by broad sector (%), 1995-2010 Agriculture Industry Services Women 1995 2000 2010 Men 1995 2000 2010 51.10 45.00 40.50 17.60 18.00 18.20 31.30 37.10 41.20 29.90 23.90 21.80 13.60 13.30 9.90 56.50 62.80 68.30

Source: compiled from BLES. DOLE. Decent Work Indicators. Table 1.

Increase in the % of low wage workers, women

Source: compiled from BLES. DOLE. Decent Work Indicators. Table 3.

Vulnerability to global conditions, women

Increased vulnerability of manufacturing employment to global conditions


Women

experienced greater loss of wage and selfemployment jobs and larger increases in unpaid family workers, compared to men (Van der Meulen Rodgers and Menon 2012)

3. Patterns of employment: substantial segregation by sex and sticky floors for women

Share of womens and mens employment and daily pay rate, largest 3 industrial sectors, 2010
Women Industry Share of womens employment (%) 21 30 12 Average Daily Basic Pay (Ph P) 136 259 123 Men Share of mens employmen t (%) 34 13 -Average Daily Basic Pay (Ph P) 156 287

Agric, forestry, fishing Trade Private households

Transport, storage,
3 sector empl. Conc. ratio

-62 NA

12
59

355
NA

Source: compiled form BLES. DOLE. Gender Labor and Employment Statistics, Tables 3.8 and 8.8. For details, see Table 1 attached.

Share of womens and mens employment and daily pay rate, top 3 occupational categories, 2010
Women
Occupation Share of womens employment (%) 35 -Average Daily Basic Pay (Ph P) 139 --

Men
Share of mens employment (%) 30 22 Average Daily Basic Pay (Ph P) 189 188

Laborers Farmers, forestry

Govt. officials
Sales, service 3 categ. empl. Conc. ratio

19
14 68

717
199 NA

11
-63

729
-NA

Source: compiled from BLES. DOLE. Gender Labor and Employment Statistics, Tables 3.9 and 8.8. For details, see Table 2 attached.

Women more unlikely to be unpaid workers

Source: compiled from BLES. DOLE. Decent Work Indicators, Table 2.

Implications of segregation for gender equality

Women concentrated in industrial sectors with low daily wage rates and high gender wage gap Industrial sub-sectors where daily wages of women are greater than those for men (e.g. mining, electricity construction, transport, real estate account for a very small percentage of womens employment No evidence of vertical segregation (i.e. occupation) by sex but.still a gender wage penalty in highly skilled occupations

Evidence of wage discrimination (on average)


Gender wage equality?

Gross wage differences -uncontrolled for human capital, hours, shows comparable wages Female-male daily wage ratio 101.5 (in 2010) (BLES. Gender Statistics on Labor and Employment, Table 3.8)

Wage discrimination against women

after controlling for womens greater human capital endowments, considerable gender wage discrimination estimates of wage discrimination range from 23% (Van der Meulen and Menon 2012) to 30% (Sakellariou 2004)

Sticky floor women


Definition

Evidence

substantial gender occupational and industrial segregation in lower paid jobs generating a larger gender wage gap at the bottom of the wage distribution than at the top (Fang and Sakellariou 2011)

women are underpaid (or men are overpaid) in every quantile of the earnings distribution (Sakellariou 2004: 1004) wage discrimination is greater in the lower quantiles of the earnings distribution (Sakellariou 2004: 1006)

4. Specific sectors: employment for women in low, middle and high skill sectors
Skill Low Sector Agriculture & fishery Trade; services Domestic Manufacturing Business Process Outsourcing International migration Numbers of women1 Case Study 2.9 million
2.8 million 1.6 million 1.3 million 70% of 640,000 52% of land based OFWs

Medium High Mixed

1. BLES. DOLE. Gender Labor and Employment Statistics. Table 3.8; POEA 2010. Table 12.

Domestic workers
Employment

Decent work?

Women - 1.6 million Men - 0.3 million Likely an underestimate Tend to be young Unclear set of duties

Long working hours

20% work more than 11 hours/day

Sources: BLES. Gender Statistics on Labor and Employment, Tables 3.8, 8.8; ILO (undated); Sayres (2005).

Low average pay per day (2010) Women 123 Ph P; Men 188 Ph P Lack of legal protection - no written contract Lack of social security or health benefits Verbal, physical and sexual abuse

Wholesale and retail trade; Repairs; Personal and household goods


Largest industrial sub-sector, particularly important for women Accounts for ~ 50 % of all registered establishments,

2009 (DTI. Distribution of establishments by industry and firms size 2009) Gender breakdown ?

Accounts for ~ 51 % of all unincorporated household enterprises Women operate 71% of these enterprises (Heintz
2010: Table 12)

Manufacturing: employment

Decline in manufacturing share of GDP

Manufacturing share of employment


Number (million) Women 2000 2009 Men 1.24 1.27 12.0 9.4 Share (%)

25.7 to 21.3% of GDP, 1980-2009 (Usui 2012: Table 2.1)

2000 2009

1.56 1.57

8.7 7.3

Source: ILO Key Indicators of the Labour Market, Table 4c).

Manufacturing: decent work?

Daily wage similar to overall country average

Lack of child care Few opportunities for advancement Work-specific health problems related to hazard exposures and accidents Lack of regular hours, increased work intensity Key sources: BLES. Gender Statistics on Labor and Employment Table 8.8; ILO (2003); WB (2011); Lu (2007).

Labor laws not effectively enforced


Disincentives for PEZA to uncover labor violations Lack of effective unions in the EPZs Forced to resign once pregnant and denied work after childbirth Lack of housing, security, safe water, electricity

III: IMPLICATIONS

IMPLICATIONS

Gender equality, employment and inclusive growth

participation in both the benefits and process (e.g. voice and agency)

Increase demand
gender responsive macroeconomic, industrial and agricultural policies particularly low and medium skill occupations

Support participation in the labor market


reduce domestic and care burden greater sharing of the unpaid work burden

IMPLICATIONS (cont)
Improve decent work

social protection policies

Reduce industrial and occupational segregation


training legal requirements and policy supports Resource ownership

Photo credits: ADB

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