site.bta At Least Twice Fewer Women than Men Earn More than Lv 1,000 from Work per Month

At Least Twice Fewer Women than Men Earn More than Lv 1,000 from Work per Month

Sofia, March 7 (BTA) - At least twice fewer women than men earn more than 1,000 leva from work per month in this country, Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) President Plamen Dimitrov said on Tuesday. He was speaking at a conference on gender equality hosted by his organization.

Women with high incomes most frequently work in the IT sector (which is male-dominated), in banking, or in the spheres of energy and telecommunications, he said.

The employment of women remains mainly in low-paid and traditionally feminized sectors such as catering, cleaning, social services, trade, and tailoring.

Men dominate in two of the three highest-paid economic activities. In the sector of "creation and distribution of information and artistic products; telecommunications," the average salary of women is lower by 18.5 per cent. In "production and distribution of electric power and heating and gaseous fuels," their salaries are lower by 14.9 per cent. Women with higher education are more than the men in this group, but the gross monthly salary is lower by 26 per cent compared to that of men with the same educational degree, according to the National Statistical Institute (NSI), Dimitrov said.

The CITUB survey shows that women with monthly incomes below 500 leva are more than men. The higher the income, the fewer the ladies who fall within the respective group, Dimitrov added.

The pay gap between the genders is growing. In 2015 it reached 14.2 per cent, compared to 10.6 per cent in 2007, the NSI said. In the state administration the pay gap is 15.4 per cent, but EU-wide it is even higher, at 16.3 per cent.

The number of women in paid labour in Bulgaria has been increasing in recent years, but is still lower than the levels reached in 2007. The employment rate reached nearly 60 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to 58.5 per cent in the same period of 2007, but women's employment declined by some 154,000 jobs over the same period. According to Dimitrov, these changes have been influenced by the decline of population numbers, as in 2007-2015 it has decreased by 487,000 and that of women - by 264,000.

The coefficient of unemployed women (6.5 per cent) is lower than the average in the country (6.7 per cent), but youth unemployment among women is increasing, reaching 13 per cent compared to 11.4 per cent in 2007.

Nearly 57 per cent of unemployed women have not had jobs for at least two and a half years. Fifty-six per cent of the unemployed workforce are women, and 719,000 women aged 15-64 do not want to work, including one-third for personal and family reasons, Dimitrov said.

In his opinion, the difficult balance between combining work and family life weakens women's positions on the labour market. About 25.2 per cent of the unemployed caring for children under 14 fail to enter the labour market because of the lack of appropriate and accessible social service establishments, while another 25.3 per cent of the women caring for elderly people would have worked if there was someone to take care of their relatives.

The "weaker gender" faces serious obstacles for career development and in trying to rise to the best company positions.

Women also receive 29 per cent lower pensions than men. The share of poor women is increasing and was 23.8 per cent in 2015, while those at risk of poverty and social exclusion reached 43 per cent.