WageIndicator News 2009

Amsterdam - May 1, 2009 - Good news for countries with a rapidly aging work force: Dutch workers over 50 don’t feel discriminated against by their employers vis-à-vis their younger colleagues. They think they deserve their earnings, they are offered training opportunities like everybody else – they feel. And they feel (almost) just as wanted by their boss than younger employees: 6 out of 10 against an average of 7 out of 10. They know however to be less productive, slower, more often on sick leave or on holiday than their younger colleagues. The younger employees add to this picture that their elder colleagues are slower and given physically easier tasks. But they don’t seem to mind so much. This outcome of a recent WageIndicator survey of 12,000 means that it should not be too difficult to promote elderly workers’ continued participation in the economy till the age of 65.

Contrary however to the well established collective practice that earnings increase with age, half of the elderly Dutch workers hold that they don’t earn more than their younger colleagues. Full report.

Brussels - May, 2009. Decisions for Life aims to promote formal employment and equal opportunities at the labour market (MDG3.5). It primarily targets adolescent female workers and job seekers in 8 occupational groups in 14 developing countries. The project site keeps track of developments and highlights during the project over the coming 30 months. http://dfl.wageindicator.org

Louvain/Brussels - April 23/24 2009 - At its concluding conference after 3 years the Euroccupations project presented a list of 1,500 occupations for future perfection in terms of cross country comparability. The project aim to produce a practical list of the most current occupations in the EU has thereby been reached. The list covers the whole labour market in a fairly representative manner. Also 150 occupations have been described in greater detail for future reference, based on contributions from the 9 participating countries. The Euroccupations project thus has made two important steps forward on the way to increasing standardization of occupational descriptions, facilitating international comparative research. See www.euroccupations.org

Buenos Aires,  April 2009 - Researcher Bruno Perinelli of Belgrano University in Buenos Aires and the Elsalario.com.ar – team has applied Purchase Power Parities (PPP) for meaningful comparison of 5 occupations between 4 Latin American countries. These countries are Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Introducing PPP’s is the way out when currencies are unstable, inflation is rampant and exchange rates change by the day. The occupations compared were accountants, IT systems analysts, personnel administrators, sales representatives and college lecturers. Some highlights: 

1. in Brazil lecturers get up to 123 per cent more than in the other nations. 

2. Argentine saleswomen obtain higher incomes than their colleagues from Brazil, Mexico and Chile, but salesmen don’t. 

3. if you wanted a career as personnel administrator or IT systems analyst, Chile is the country to start, it rewards you best. 

4. in Argentina work experience is highly rewarded, especially in accountancy (a head start and widening the gap with the neighbours over the years) and in IT, where the high Chilean starting wages are overtaken after 15 years of working experience. 

5. Whatever the occupation (almost) all show considerable gender pay gaps in all 4 countries, with the notable exception of female Mexican IT-specialists and Argentine saleswomen who earn more than their male colleagues. Full report. 

Buenos Aires - April , 2009. In the framework of the Decision of Life project a new tool has been developed by the design team in Buenos Aires. This PartnerCheck is already available in Spanish and English. Other languages will follow shortly. It works a bit like a mirror. Who would you like to be or become? What’s your road to happiness? You lay that your dreams come true. It brings back memories of child’s play – and indeed when you play, you dress and undress puppets to shape them into your dream team: you and your ideal partner. But behind romance lurks the real world. So be aware. This tool helps you to make the best choice. Check him out. 

Amsterdam, March, 2009. A tool, not by far as romantic but also helpful in making up your mind, is the recently developed salary negotiation quiz for women. It is now online in the Dutch WageIndicator for women, and currently being tested for popularity and relevance. It should be adapted however to any new national environment, since legal aspects and national habits come into play. English, Spanish and Russian language versions are coming up soon – for (dis)approval, adoption and adaptation.

Dusseldorf - March 2009 - Till just before the financial crisis German bank clerks presented a picture of well being and stability. These are people who, after finishing school, followed a 3-year banking course to master the trade. Only one in seven has an academic degree. According to the Lohnspiegel-respondents in this sector (data came in from 2005 till the middle of 2008) the great majority had fixed contracts, fell under collective agreements and gradually earned more as their working experience increased with the years. On average they made approx. € 3,500 gross per month.

Like at the top in this branch of industry, also amongst the rank and file bonuses were an important part of their income: on average just over 30 per cent, ranking 3rd amongst 12 selected occupational groups, only surpassed by engineers and it-consultants. Two out of three respondents said that over the last year they had to put in more hours. Half of them were compensated with free time, only a few got a higher reward for the extra hours. Although pretty satisfied with their work, nevertheless an over-average of mental stress was reported: 3.4 on a scale of 1-5. Job (in)security amongst German bank clerks ranged widely: a quarter felt insecure, a quarter not at all. The other half wavered. This roughly outlines the picture just before the financial crisis broke out. See full report:

Amsterdam, March 5, 2009 - The average gender pay gap in almost all of 20 countries covered by WageIndicator in a new ITUC-report, is 22.4 per cent. These 20 countries include the major economies of the world (apart from Japan and China), as well as developed and developing countries. In 2008 – based on 12 countries with national WageIndicator surveys - gender pay gaps in the range of 13 to 23 per cent were reported.

This means that over the past year no progress has been made, notwithstanding many efforts to reduce the pay gap between men and women, with comparable qualifications performing the same work. The 2009 report moreover shows that the gender pay gap widens with age in all countries.

Read more

Download the ITUC Report ‘Gender (in)equality in the labour market: an overview of global trends and developments' (pdf 310 kB)

Prague, March 1 2009 - 9,000 completed surveys were volunteered in the first 2 months in the Czech survey, from its launch on March 1rst. The regional team from Mujplat.cz, ascribes this early success to a large extent to cooperation with the national job portal JobDNES.cz . It is still discussing a similar quick start with a potential counterpart in Slovakia. 

Mexico, March 2009. After a successful pilot (2008) in The Netherlands, India and South Africa the DecentWorkCheck is now also online in Mexico.  The tool tells you whether or not the conditions under which you work are decent. Decent according to international standards and in agreement with the national law of the country where you work. The DecentWorkCheck is basically derived from the relevant ILO-Conventions, ratified by UN-member states who - by ratifying - promise to bring their national labour law in line with these Conventions. 

Capetown, March 18 2009.  Some 30 new regional team members met in Cape Town for the first time. Together they enlarge the outreach of WageIndicator throughout the whole of English speaking Southern Africa, as well as Angola and Mozambique. 

Asuncion, February, 2009 - The month of February showed a sharp rise in visits to the WageIndicator websites in Paraguay and Colmbia. This was certainly a result of a dedicated effort by their national teams to draw the attention of the wider audience and how the public may benefit by participating. In its Asuncion headquarters trade union confederation CNT held a much publicized debate on the minimum income needed to make ends meet. This led to a quantum leap in visits and data intake. The debate was also organized at the occasion of the start of the offline survey in the month of March, conducted successfully by BASE from Asuncion. The paper work is currently being elaborated by the Foundation’s data specialists.