WorkIndicators worldwide

 

The Decent Work Agenda: a gender perspective

Decent Work, Decent Life for Women is the theme of the 1st World Women’s Conference of the ITUC, October 19th to 21st 2008 in Brussels, and of a continuing ITUC’s Global Campaign. On the conference, the ITUC-report The Decent Work Agenda: a gender perspective (pdf, 2,1MB) has  been presented. The report’s main objective is to examine what evidence exists on decent work for women. It also looks at the gender pay gap. Source for the report is the international WageIndicator survey data. Here are the key findings.

Countries included
The research focuses on 12 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Finland, India, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, Russian Federation, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States.

Summary
Overall, women are adversely affected compared to their male colleagues in the following areas:

  • Pay
  • Promotion and progression
  • Work-life balance
  • Working conditions

 
Gender pay gap

  • Gender pay gap in the sample of 12 countries: 28% for full-time workers, 17% for part-time workers.
  • Little evidence of gender pay gap narrowing.

Gender Pay Gap in a number of countries

The gender pay gap during the period 2006-2009 in a number of countries.

Promotion and progression opportunities

  • In every country included in the research, more men than women received a promotion.
  • A similar picture emerges for career opportunities, with women being more negative about their prospects than men.


Work-life balance

  • More women than men work part-time hours, especially when they have children.
  • Dissatisfaction with work-life balance is larger among single parents than among those who live with a partner.
  • In single-parent households, women are more likely to work full-time.


Trade union membership and coverage by collective agreement

  • Brazil and Finland have the highest trade union membership in the sample, Russia the lowest.
  • In some countries, a high proportion of respondents who are not a member of a trade union are still covered by a collective agreement.


Working conditions

  • Between one-fifth and half of survey respondents work more hours than agreed in their contract.
  • In many cases, overtime is not compensated.
  • Women are more affected than men by not receiving overtime compensation.
  • Participation rates in private work-related pension and medical insurance schemes are lower among women than men.


Decent work country profiles

Six out of the 12 countries covered by the WageIndicator research have also been used to provide a ‘decent work profile’, using the Decent Work Check. These countries are Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, The Netherlands and South Africa. Key findings of these country profiles are:

  • Among the six countries covered, all countries have areas of non-compliance.
  • Legislation in these areas is minimal or nonexistent.
  • Action in this field is clearly necessary in order to raise labour standards.

 

Download the full report The Decent Work Agenda: a gender perspective (pdf, 2,1MB)

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