Men participate more in the Dominican labor market, but they run a race in which women are ahead, who narrowly outperform them when it comes to salary general average reported by employers to the Social Security Treasury (TSS) and in some compensatory ranges.
The TSS bases its data on reports from employers, and in January of this year, men were 53.56% of the notified workforce, and women 46.44%.
But in that month, the women had a salary average of RD$28,697, slightly higher than that of men, which was RD$28,382.9. The trend continued last year.
Also, women outnumbered men in the number of jobs registered in the TSS for that month with salaries between RD$30,000 and RD$50,000, and they were more within the range between RD$10,000 and RD$30,000.
If you look at the formal market of workers foreigners listed on the TSS, the occupational picture is more different. For last January, men were 73.70% within the jobs held by foreigners and women the remaining 26.30%. But in terms of salary average were close: men with RD$56,879.9 and women RD$56,413.6.
An analysis by the National Statistics Office (ONE) explains that there are multiple social, economic or cultural causes for which women are more likely to be inactive at work: maternity and lactation, family care and care, and the decision of a single provider. , among other.
It highlights that, with a higher educational level, the gender wage gap tends to be reduced, and that women increase their rate of participation in the labor market as their educational level increases.
For the first quarter of 2020, one of three employed women in the Dominican Republic had university studies; in contrast, in men, it was placed in less than one in five. And for the third quarter of 2021, there were 206,093 more women than men employed with a university level.
The ONE cites that between 2014 and 2020, on average, less than one in five men was inactive. However, in women, one in three was found in labor inactivity.
“In the group without any educational level, women were paid 39.4% less than men and at the university level, 30.5%. This correlation supports the hypothesis that investment in education has repercussions on closing the gender wage gap”, observes the ONE in the study “Evolution of the gender wage gap in the Dominican Republic 2014-2020”.
In the long term, the institution projects that the investment of 4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in education will have a favorable impact on wage inequality due to gender.
If the amount of the population employed by branch of economic activity is distributed by sex, with 15 years and over, men dominate in agricultural and livestock jobs, construction, transportation and communications, and public administration and defense.
The amounts, compiled by the Central Bank, show that women outnumber them in the hotel, bar and restaurant sector; education, health and social assistance.
In other sectors such as industries, electricity and water, commerce, financial intermediation and insurance, men outnumber women, although they occupy a significant part of the positions.
Contrary to the general panorama, women appear with greater participation within the free zone sector.
As of January of this year 2022, they represented 52.65% of the working population, while men represented 46.47%. However, on average, women had a salary of RD$17,553.7, lower than that of men which was RD$25,278.3, reports the TSS.
The ONE analyzes that the differential in the levels of female employment in the Dominican Republic goes back decades, and requires a deeper representative characterization, taking into account the educational level, marital status, having children and their ages, income of the spouse, geographical area, types of employment, remuneration, level of poverty, etc., to determine the conditioning factors and opportunity cost that limit their participation in the labor market.
In rural Dominican areas the occupational difference is more marked between men and women.
The ONE reports in the study “Evolution of the gender wage gap in the Dominican Republic 2014-2020” that at that time women earned a third less than men, reducing the difference in urban areas to a quarter.
“The scope of public policies demands attention with a sense of urgency, since the data indicated that a woman who lived in a rural area was conditioned to carry out unpaid activities or to live in salary dependence on her husband, partner or relative, assistance social, among others, which, consequently, triggers other problems related to gender”, observes the ONE.
