Unions and the Gender Wage Gap in South Africa

Studies of the wage effects of unions in South Africa have been concerned largely with the impact of union membership on the wages of African and White male workers. Consistent with findings in the international literature, these studies have concluded that unions compress the distribution of wages in South Africa, and more specifically, that racial inequality is lower in the union sector than in the non-union sector. In this paper, we explore whether unions in South Africa are associated with comparable gender wage effects among African workers, using data collected in the nationally representative Labour Force Surveys. In contrast to international studies, we find that the gender wage gap is larger in the union sector than in the non-union sector, in part reflecting the nature of occupational segregation by gender in union employment. We also consider how possible selection into union status affects our estimates, and demonstrate the difficulty of addressing this problem in the South African context by evaluating a variety of selection models.

English Language Proficiency and Earnings in a Developing Country: The Case of South Africa

In this paper we explore the relationship between English language proficiency and earnings in South Africa, using new data from the first wave of the National Income Dynamics panel survey of 2008. Much of the literature on this topic has studied the impact on earnings of host country language acquisition among minority groups of immigrants to developed countries. In our study we analyse the returns to language skills in a developing country context where the dominant language of business, government and education is that of the former colony, although not more than one percent of the African majority population group speaks English as their home language. Our findings suggest large returns among Africans to reading and writing English very well, and particularly among those who have a tertiary education. We also briefly consider the implications of these results for language and education policy in South Africa in the post-apartheid period.language proficiency, earnings, South Africa, language policy

Relative standing and subjective well-being in South Africa: The role of perceptions, expectations and income mobility

Most studies that explore the impact of relative standing on subjective well-being use objective measures of the individual’s relative position, such as the mean income of the reference group or the individual’s ranking in the relevant income distribution. In this paper, using a new household survey from South Africa, we are able to derive subjective measures of relative standing, as information is collected on individuals’ perceptions of where they rank in the income distribution. We find considerable differences between objective and subjective measures of an individual’s relative ranking. Furthermore, our results suggest that an individual’s perceived relative status has a significantly larger effect on subjective well-being than objective measures of relative status based on reported income. We also examine the effects on subjective well-being of how individuals perceive their relative position in the income distribution to have changed since childhood, and what they expect their relative position to be in the future. We find that future upward mobility has a smaller effect than upward mobility compared to one’s past, suggesting that life satisfaction is influenced more by what has been achieved than by anticipated achievements.subjective well-being, relative standing, perceptions, expectations, income mobility, South Africa

Sex ratios and racial differences in marriage rates in South Africa

In South Africa, marriage rates among white women aged 20 to 34 are at least twice as high as marriage rates among African women in the same age cohort. This paper compares the relationship between alternative definitions of sex ratios and marriage outcomes among African and white women using matched data from the 2001 Population Census and the South African Labour Force Surveys. We show that among both white and African women, simple sex ratios, which capture the quantity of unmarried men relative to women in local marriage markets, are significant predictors of marriage. However, among African women, economic-based measures of "marriageability", which take into account the quality of available men, perform even better in predicting marriage. Our findings are consistent with the argument that the payment of bridewealth (or ilobolo) by a husband to the prospective wife’s family acts as a financial constraint to marriage among African couples, raising the "marriageability" criteria of men.

Who replies in brackets and what are the implications for earnings estimates? An analysis of earnings data from South Africa

In household surveys, earnings data typically can be reported as point values, in brackets or as 'missing'. In this paper we consider South African household survey data that contain these three sets of responses. In particular, we examine whether there are systematic differences between the sample of the employed with earnings reported as point values and those with earnings responses in brackets; we compare five different methods of reconciling bracket and point responses so as to generate descriptive measures of earnings; and we investigate empirically how earnings measures differ by approach.

What has the feminisation of the labour market 'brought' women in South Africa? Trends in labour force participation, employment and earnings, 1995 - 2001

There has been a dramatic increase in the labour force participation of women in South Africa since the mid-1990s. Male participation has also been increasing but at a substantially slower rate, such that a feminisation of the labour force has occurred, mirroring a more general global trend that has been occurring since World War Two

Differences in subjective well-being within households: An analysis of married and cohabiting couples in South Africa

We investigate differences in subjective well-being (life satisfaction) within the household using matched data on co-resident couples drawn from the 2008 National Income Dynamics Study for South Africa. The majority of men and women in co-resident partnerships report different levels of subjective wellbeing. We use regression analysis first to explore the correlates of subjective well-being among women, and among men, who are married or cohabiting. We then estimate the predictors of within-couple differences in life satisfaction. Our results suggest that a number of correlates, related particularly to the roles and responsibilities of women and men in the household, differ by gender and also predict differences in subjective well-being within couples. For example, access to piped water on site increases the subjective well-being of women in comparison both to other married or cohabiting women and to the woman’s partner, but it does not account for differences in subjective well-being among married or cohabiting men. In contrast, the presence of young children in the household lowers the subjective well-being of women, while there is no such relationship for men. Furthermore, within couples, women’s relative satisfaction falls with the presence of young children in the household.Keywords: Happiness gaps, intra-household allocation, life satisfaction, subjectivewell-bein

Más Penipe, turístico y accesible : campaña de concientización del turismo accesible

The project in hand seeks to analyze the current national and international state of universal design and accessibility as fundamental factors for the social inclusion of people with disabilities. The importance of universal design and norms that must be followed to reach a correct state of accessibility will be showcased, with the objective of minimizing the marginalization of handicapped people...El presente proyecto analizara la situación mundial y nacional del diseño universal y la accesibilidad como factores primordiales para la inclusión de las personas con discapacidad. Se presentará la importancia del diseño universal y la normativa que se debe seguir para alcanzar una verdadera accesibilidad, con el fin de minimizar la marginalización de las personas con discapacidad; en especial porque el entorno y la falta de accesibilidad es la principal razón por la cual las personas con discapacidad son excluidas de la sociedad..

The rise in female labour force participation in South Africa : an analysis of household survey data , 1995-2001.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.In the 1990s nationally representative and detailed household survey data became available for the first time in South Africa, opening up opportunities to examine some of the key movements in the labour market especially. This thesis investigates one of these: the continued and dramatic rise in female labour force participation that has occurred in post-apartheid South Africa over the period 1995 to 2001. The rise in women's participation, also referred to as the 'feminisation' of the labour market, is a phenomenon that has been observed and analysed in many countries around the world, and yet has remained largely undocumented in South Africa. The 'feminisation' that has been recorded in the international literature generally refers to the rise in women's share of the labour force coupled with a rise in women's share of employment. What is striking in the South African case, however, is that over the period under review here regular employment opportunities in the formal sector of the economy have been indisputably limited, and yet female labour force participation has continued to increase. The increase in participation has translated mainly into a rise in unemployment and in generally low-paying forms of self-employment in the informal sector. This raises the question why so many more women chose to enter the labour market over this period in spite of their dismal prospects, a question that is explored as far as possible in this study given the constraints imposed by the data available. This thesis is presented in three main parts. The first part consists of a review of the economic theory of female labour supply and a review of the international literature on the trends, causes and consequences associated with the rise in female labour force participation over time. The second and largest part of the thesis consists of an empirical analysis of the factors driving the rise in female labour force participation in South Africa. The broad trends in the labour force between 1995 and 2001 are documented, some of the supply-side correlates of labour force participation are explored descriptively, and then the determinants of the rise in female labour force participation in South Africa over this period are tested more thoroughly in a multivariate regression and decomposition analysis. The final part of the study turns to the question of what the rise in female labour force participation has 'bought' women in terms of access to employment and earnings for those women who did have work in the period under review