ARMSTAT and UN Women conclude analysis of the gender pay gap and other gender inequalities in the Armenian labour market
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UN Women Georgia in partnership with the national Statistical Committee of Armenia (ARMSTAT) has concluded a study with the objective of calculating the adjusted gender pay gap and the associated economic inequalities of women in the labour market in Armenia. The adjusted gender pay gap in Armenia is estimated at 28.4 per cent. It is larger than the unadjusted hourly gender pay gap of 23.1 per cent, suggesting that working women have better labour-market characteristics than men.
The gender wage gap is the difference between the hourly wages earned by men and women in the labour market, expressed as a percentage of men’s wage. This raw gap does not take into account the characteristics of the individuals used in the comparison, most notably education. When such attributes are considered, the gap becomes “adjusted”.
The raw (unadjusted) gap calculated on monthly wages is 40 per cent. However, it includes the gender pay gap and the gender gap in hours worked. Armenian women are found to work less than men by about 14.3 per cent; therefore, the gender pay gap calculated on hourly wages - constituting 23.1 per cent - is smaller in comparison with the monthly gender pay gap. Women work fewer hours than men, and such differences are spread among ages, occupations and economic statuses. However, women spend comparatively more time than men engaged in household chores, including caring for children and sick, elderly and disabled family members.
The results of the study find evidence for horizontal gender segregation, as at least three quarters of women and men employees would need to trade places across the job categories for their distribution to become identical. Vertical segregation is quite pronounced as well. The study also analyses other gender-related labour-market inequalities, such as the gender gap in employment and the effect of childcare on women’s employment, among other issues. The entire report is based on ARMSTAT’s 2018 Labour Force Survey (LFS) data. The author of the report, Dr. Marjan Petreski, UN Women International Consultant, has trained ARMSTAT’s analytical staff to strengthen their capacity to reproduce the key indicators of the study for the upcoming waves of the LFS.
The activities were carried out within the framework of the project “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus”, financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the Austrian Development Cooperation.