An overview of women’s work and employment in Azerbaijan
2.8. Wages and working conditions of the target group
2.8.1. Wages
Concerning wages, we focus here on the differences in wages between men and women or the gender
pay (wage) gap11, though Table 11 also gives a picture of the (large) wage differences between industries
in Azerbaijan. It shows that for both genders by far the highest earnings are in mining, paying respectively
217% (men) and 346% (women) over the total average earnings, with finance ranking second. Earnings in
the other industries follow at large distance. Remarkably low —also for males, though here a considerable
gender pay gap is left-- are the official average earnings in education, health and social work. Except for
agriculture and fishing, the health and social sector even closes the ranks.
Table 11. Average monthly earnings by industry and by gender, Azerbaijan, 2008, in AZN
|
total |
male |
female |
m/f gap | |
|
agriculture_______________________ |
_____________114.7 |
_____________118.9 |
_______________93.0 |
_______________21.8 |
|
fishing___________________________ |
_____________104.6 |
_____________104.9 |
_______________87.4 |
_______________16.7 |
|
mining_____________________ |
____________1,011.4 |
____________1,029.0 |
_____________826.0 |
_______________19.7 |
|
manufacturing________________ |
_____________251.6 |
_____________253.9 |
_____________191.6 |
_______________24.5 |
|
utilities (gas, water, electr.)________ |
_____________287.4 |
_____________293.3 |
_____________232.6 |
______________20.7 |
|
construction___________________ |
_____________371.9 |
_____________406.1 |
_____________220.7 |
______________45.7 |
|
wholesale and retail_____________ |
_____________211.3 |
_____________214.3 |
______________199.1 |
___________________7.1 |
|
transport, storage, commun. |
_____________329.4 |
_____________355.8 |
_____________210.1 |
_______________40.9 |
|
restaurants, hotels________________ |
_____________257.8 |
_____________265.4 |
_____________241.9 |
__________________8.9 |
|
finance_________________________ |
_____________812.6 |
_____________877.5 |
_____________573.8 |
_______________34.6 |
|
real estate, renting, business |
_____________527.9 |
_____________643.8 |
_____________269.2 |
_______________58.2 |
|
public administrat., defense |
_____________288.0 |
_____________296.4 |
______________231.1 |
_______________22.0 |
|
education_____________________ |
_____________214.4 |
_____________257.0 |
_____________186.0 |
_______________27.6 |
|
health, social work______________ |
_____________130.9 |
_____________167.8 |
_____________112.6 |
______________32.9 |
|
other community and personal |
182.7 |
238.6 |
126.4 |
47.0 |
|
Total________________________ |
____________274.4 |
____________324.6 |
______________184.5 |
______________43.2 |
Source: ILO Laborsta, Table 5A
In the fourth column of the table we have indicated the magnitude of the gender pay gap, on a monthly
basis. It has to be added that this gap is normally calculated on an hourly base, as to eliminate gender dif-
ferences in hours worked. Yet, as we will see in the next section there are any gender differences in hours
worked, which means that the outcomes of Table 11 may be regarded as reasonable indications of the
hourly gender pay gap in Azerbaijan. With over 43% the over-all gap in 2008 was extremely large, also in
international perspective. This outcome fully fits in the picture of a highly segmented labour market that we
11 We use the international standard formula for the gender pay (or wage) gap: ((wage men — wage women) : wage men) x100).
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