Purpose

Despite a widespread assertion that wages are lower in the informal than formal economy, there have been few empirical evaluations of whether this is the case and even fewer studies of the gender variations in wage rates in the formal and informal economies. Consequently, whether there are wage benefits to formal employment for men and women is unknown. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the wage differential between formal and informal employment for men and women.

Design/methodology/approach

To evaluate the wage differential between the formal and informal economy for men and women, data are reported from a 2017 survey involving 8,533 household interviews conducted in Kosovo.

Findings

Using decomposition analysis and after controlling for other determinants of wage differentials, the finding is that the net hourly earnings of men in formal employment are 26% higher than men in informal employment and 14% higher for women in formal employment compared with women in informal employment.

Practical implications

Given the size of the wage differential, the costs for employers will need to significantly increase in terms of the penalties and risks of detection if informal employment is to be prevented, along with more formal employment opportunities using active labour market policies for vulnerable groups, perhaps targeted at men (who constitute 82.8% of those in informal employment).

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to evaluate the differentials in wage rates in the formal and economy from a gender perspective.

中文翻译：

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评估正规经济和非正规经济之间的工资差异：性别视角

目的

尽管普遍断言非正规经济中的工资低于正规经济，但很少有实证评估是否如此，对正规和非正规经济中工资率的性别差异的研究更少。因此，男性和女性的正式就业是否有工资福利是未知的。本文的目的是评估男性和女性的正规和非正规就业之间的工资差异。

设计/方法/方法

为了评估男性和女性在正规经济和非正规经济之间的工资差异，报告了 2017 年调查的数据，该调查涉及在科索沃进行的 8,533 个家庭访谈。

发现

使用分解分析并在控制工资差异的其他决定因素后，发现与从事非正规就业的女性相比，正规就业男性的每小时净收入比非正规就业男性高 26%，正规就业女性比非正规就业女性高 14% .

实际影响

鉴于工资差异的规模，如果要防止非正规就业，雇主的成本将需要显着增加，包括惩罚和被发现的风险，以及使用积极的劳动力市场政策为弱势群体提供更多正规就业机会，也许针对男性（占非正规就业人员的 82.8%）。

原创性/价值

这是从性别角度评估正规和经济中工资率差异的首批研究之一。