Overall, women employed in Serbia have higher qualifications than men, yet they still earn less, according to new research conducted by a team of two think-tanks: The Belgrade-based Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN) and the Skoplje-based University American College Skopje (UACS).

Women in Serbia (as well as in Macedonia and Montenegro) face great barriers at the point of entry into the labour market, thus they must be more qualified than men on average to be allowed initial access to employment. In other words, while both lowly skilled and highly skilled men work, a disproportionate number of highly skilled women work since those women lacking necessary competitive skill are often left inactive in the labour market.

Should discrimination be factored out, women would earn more than men due to their qualifications. In adjusting previous results to this fact, women are shown to earn a real total of 11% less than men. This observed trend remains the opposite of that found in Western economies, where working women, on average, are less qualified than working men.

These key findings were presented by Sonja Avlijaš and Marko Vladisavljević, researchers from the Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (FREN), and the study’s co-authors, at a public event co-sponsered by FREN and UN Women (UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women) at the Hotel Metropol Palace in Belgrade.

Source: RRPP