Colombia | Reopening schools would reduce gender gap in Colombian labor market

Summary

In Colombia, the gender gap in the labor market already existed before the pandemic; however, the suspension of in-person education mainly affected the employment of women who were not heads of households and households with children, widening the gap in the labor participation rate and possibly the wage gap.

Key points

• Key points:
• Historically, women participate less than men in the labor market. Those who do not participate are mainly dedicated to housework and other unpaid occupations.
• In 2019, of the women who remained out of the labor force, 59% were engaged in household chores while, in the case of men, 57% were students and only 8% were engaged in household chores.
• The income gap tends to widen over the course of their lives, which is reflected in the fact that 79.4% of men over 60 who are outside the labor force are in the group of income earners, or retirees, while only 29.5% of women are in the group of income earners or retirees.
• The wage gap increases with the number of children, reaching 14% with one child and 20.6% with three or more children.

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