Unequal pay between men and women continues to pose problems, despite decades of legislation to address it. OECD countries are no exception. Most of them show gender pay gaps between 10 and 20%, with Japan having one of the widest gender pay gaps of over 25%. The pay gap is relatively narrow–around 10%–in Greece, in part because only the most qualified women remain in their jobs, which increases women’s median earnings.
Visit www.oecd.org/gender/
Employment rates have been rising in several OECD countries, but productivity has not kept up. Indeed, a slowdown of productivity growth in the past years continued to undermine rises in economic output and living standards. Labour productivity among the G7 countries was highest in the US where the level of GDP per hour worked was US$68.3 in 2015, followed by France and Germany, while Canada and Japan had levels below the OECD average of $51.1.
Visit www.oecd.org/global-forum-productivity
See the OECD Compendium of Productivity Indicators 2017
See also “Productivity’s wave goodbye”, in OECD Observer No 300, 2014, http://oe.cd/wavegoodbye
Can more social spending curb emigration? Possibly yes. In fact, an increase in social protection as a share of GDP is linked to reduced rates of planned emigration (see graph, which shows this negative correlation). Costa Rica spends almost 16% of its GDP on social programmes and has only around 4% of planned migration. Social spending on programmes such as unemployment insurance, disability pay, medical care and child care all decrease vulnerability and can discourage people from emigrating out of necessity.
See OECD Observer No 309 Q1 2017, http://oe.cd/1Ru
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