In January 2004, Estonia has not yet adopted its Gender Equality Act, after more than three years of discussions over the draft legislation. The background is a labour market which is still quite heavily segregated by gender, and a persistent (if diminishing) pay gap between women and men. Current legislation is widely seen as inadequate to deal with this continuing workplace inequality.
The Estonian legislative framework on equality between women and men at work is not yet complete, with the key item of legislation, the Gender Equality Act, not yet having been adopted (EE0312102F). The draft of the Act was drawn up by the Ministry of Social Affairs and adopted by the government in 2001. After the first parliamentary reading in March 2002, the draft was referred back to the Constitutional Committee. After parliamentary elections in March 2003, an amended draft was resubmitted to the newly elected parliament (Riigikogu). At the beginning of January 2004, the latest draft Gender Equality Act was approved by the government, but has not yet been discussed in parliament. Despite the government’s approval, the Estonian Employer’s Confederation (Eesti Tööandjate Keskliit, ETTK) (EE0310102F) is opposed to the draft legislation, because it believes that the Act would inhibit the activity of employers and business in a substantial way by establishing an unjustified number of additional obligations for them.
However, there has been some recent progress on legislation on equality-related issues. Inequality between the sexes derives partly from the fact that women do much work that is not remunerated or valued by society - housework and taking care of children and elderly and sick people. Though both mothers and fathers currently have a right to three years of unpaid parental leave, it is usually the mother that takes the leave. A new Parental Benefits Act now aims to compensate for the loss of earnings accompanying taking care of a child and to support the reconciliation of work and family life. The Act provides for a benefit equal to the average wage of the parent - but not less than EEK 2,200 a month and not more than EEK 15,741 in 2004 - for one parent taking leave, for one year following the birth of a child. On 19 December 2003, the President promulgated this Act.
Employment patterns
While public opinion has sometimes taken an equivocal attitude towards the draft Gender Equality Act, the situation in the labour market indicates that - while there have been some rather positive developments - much remains to be done to achieve gender equality in Estonia.
Labour market participation rates have traditionally been different among women and men in Estonia. Although this gap has narrowed during recent years, the difference is still notable. According to labour force survey data, in 2003 the labour market participation rate was 57.9% for women and 72.6% for men compared with 2002 figures of 57.0% and 68.5% respectively. These statistics reveal that the harmonisation of participation rates is not the result of an increase in women’s labour market activity, but rather of a decrease in men’s participation rate.
The employment rate of men remains notably higher than that of women: in 2002, the male employment rate was 63.5%, compared with 54.7% for women. The differential has been almost stable for the past six years, at around 10%. The proportion of workers working full time is relatively high in Estonia, but there are differences between the sexes. In 2002, 95.2% of male workers worked full time, compared with 89.3% for women. However, only about 20% of women are 'underemployed', compared with about 40% of men.
The unemployment rate was about one percentage point higher among men (10.9%) than among women (9.8%) in 2002. In addition, the problem of long-term unemployment is more serious among men than among women. In 2002, long-term unemployed men made up 59% of all unemployed men, while for women the relevant share was 46%. One of the main reasons for this situation is that women have a greater tendency to become inactive and leave the labour market than men.
The Estonian labour market is quite strongly segregated by gender in sectoral and occupational terms. The majority of employees in the public sector are women. The share of women is particularly high (around 80%) in the healthcare sector, education and hotels and restaurants. The share of men is extremely high (around 90%) in fishery, the mining industry and construction. Women work most usually as specialists, and service and sales workers. The most usual occupations for men are craft workers, machinery operators and managers.
During the past 10 years, segregation has diminished in many sectors (banking, trade, real estate etc) and also in many occupational groups. Equality of opportunities for women and men in gaining access to the labour market, in career advancement, in earnings and in reconciling work and family life have been identified as one of the aims of current labour market strategy in Estonia.
Pay inequality
In all advanced countries, there is a gap between the average wage levels of women and men. In this respect, Estonia does not differ too much from other European countries. The gender wage gap has diminished over the years, but it is still quite large - women earn on average only 75% of what their male counterparts earn. According to a study entitled 'Working life barometer in the Baltic countries 2002' conducted by the Finnish Ministry of Labour, this harmonisation has taken place due to the fact that women’s wages have improved more than men’s. A characteristic feature of this harmonisation is also that women’s wages have increased in all income classes, while men’s wages have increased in the lowest income groups only. A study of the income deciles shows that the higher the decile to which a person belongs, the greater the wage difference between men and women.
The main reason for gender wage differentials is that men and women are engaged in different work. In the 1990s, when the Estonian economy was reorganised, certain sectors of the economy (such as trade, banking and real estate) developed faster than others and therefore attracted more men, but this did not change the fact that gender segregation exists in the labour market. Segregation operates both horizontally and vertically, in that women are primarily concentrated in occupations which are not particularly prestigious and also receive wage levels lower than the average male workers. Women are also a minority in high-level positions. However, the results of various studies have shown that the wage differentials between men and women working for the same employer are minimal.
According to the abovementioned study, the ratio of women’s wages to men’s wages is smallest at new workplaces established after Estonia regained independence and greatest at older workplaces. In addition, pay inequality has decreased more in the public than in the private sector. In the public sector, employees mostly have a fixed wage, while in the private sector there is much more variability.
Commentary
A key issue in current labour market policy is the attempt to enact the Gender Equality Act. As both local and foreign experts take the view that current Estonian legislation is insufficient to achieve gender equality, the adoption of the Gender Equality Act would be a great step forward. Even though the first draft of the Act was drawn up by the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2000, the legislation has not been adopted yet. The most important point of argument has been whether Estonia should adopt a law that regulates only equality between women and men, or introduce a more general law to prohibit discrimination on a variety of grounds, including sex, race, nationality, language, religion, age, disability and political or other beliefs. On 8 January 2004, the government expressed support for the draft Gender Equality Act, as discrimination in Estonia is most likely to occur on gender grounds. It seems quite probable that this law will be adopted before 1 May 2004 (when Estonia joins the EU). Therefore it may be presumed that the Estonian labour market will witness an equalisation between the sexes in future. (Kaia Philips and Raul Eamets, University of Tartu)