M. van Klaveren, K.G. Tijdens, M. Hughie-Williams and N.E. Ramos Martin
derived from the labour market statistics presented earlier. Across industries the gap was by far largest in real
estate and other business, where men’s average earnings more than doubled those of women, followed —in
this order-- by other community and personal services; construction, and transport, storage, and communi-
cation. Remarkably small was the gender pay gap in wholesale and retail, where men had quite low earnings
—unless the segmentation in occupational titles we earlier found for this industry.
2.8.2. Working conditions
Azerbaijani statistics concerning aspects of working conditions like occupational health and safety
mainly focus on manufacturing industry. They point out that notably men are working here under, as it is
called, disadvantageous conditions. In 2006, one in six men in manufacturing (16.3%) was working in condi-
tions not meeting sanitary-hygienic norms; for women, this share was nearly one in ten (9.5%). The highest
incidence had exposure to noise (4.9% of men, 2.3% of women) and working in air-polluted zones (5.3%
of men, 1.6% of women (SSC, via website AGIC).
As Azerbaijani statistics provide rather good evidence on working hours, we concentrate here on this
major issue in working conditions. Table 12 (next page) gives an overview of the distribution of hours usu-
ally worked by gender, for the total labour force, the paid employees and the self-employed. The frequency
division presented here dates from 2003 but the picture still seems relevant. It shows that overall working
hours were not quite long and gender differences rather small. One third of males in the labour force (34%)
and just over one in five females (21%) made long hours i.e. worked 41 hours a week or more; among
paid employees, these shares were with 29% respectively 16% somewhat lower. The working weeks of the
self-employed were more segmented. A larger part of them worked 30 hours or less (30% of the female
self-employed, against 19% of the female employees), but a larger part also worked over 40 hours (27% of
female self-employed, against 16% of the female employees). If we define part-time work as less than 31
hours per week, 24% of all women in the labour force, 19% of female employees and 30% of female self-
employed, worked part-time. For 2007, UNECE (2009) mentions 23% women in part-time employment,
implying that this share is stable over time.
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