'More Than 20 Million Women out of Worklife'

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Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK) Genel-İş Research Chamber has released the fourth Women's Labor Report on the occasion of the March 8 Women's Day.

Aimed at making the difficulties women face in work life more visible, the report is based on figures from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), OECD, the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Services, and the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR).

Women's participation rate lower than EU, OECD

Here are the highlights from the report:

• In 2017, only 3 out of every 10 women participated in the employment. While the employment participation rate for women was 28.9 percent, it was 65.1 percent for men. Women's participation rate became 29.1 percent in November 2018. Average employment participation rate for women is 45.9 percent in EU countries, and 44.4 percent in OECD countries.

3 million women work more than 45 hours a week

• Women who participate in the worklife work double time because of their social roles. In 2014, the number of women who work more than 45 hours a week was 2 million 774 thousand. In 2017, it became 2 million 974 thousand, with an 8 percent increase.
• Unemployment among women increased in 2018 when the economic crisis began. While the women unemployment decreased until April, it began to increase from June. As of November, it was around 15 percent. For men, it was 11.2 percent.
• Non-agricultural unemployment is 18.5 percent for women, 12.6 percent for men.
• In 2018, applications for unemployment salary increased by 57.7 percent compared to the previous year.

ILO: Gender pay gap is 12 percent

The report said the following on gender pay gap:

"According to a research by the International Labour Organization (ILO), gender pay gap is 18.8 percent in the world.

"This ratio changes according to income groups. In the high-income countries such as Portugal, Spain and France, gender pay gap is 15.5 percent on average. In the upper middle-income countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Turkey, gender pay gap is 20.9 percent on average. The gender pay gap for Turkey is 12 percent.

In the lower middle-income countries such as Sri-Lanka, Indonesia, Tunisia and Egypt, it is 16.9 percent." (EMK/VK)