Do gender/race wage differences decrease under more and better jobs? Comparing patterns of inequalities in Brazilian labor market

• In Event: Género y trabajo en las nuevas configuraciones de la desigualdad social: perspectivas interseccionales en América Latina

Abstract

The transformations that the Brazilian labor market went through in the past fifty years meant the consolidation of a movement towards “marketization” of its labor force. This movement laid upon an increasing on women participation rates, that grew at a different pace compared to what was observed in other countries, as opposed to race differentials in those chances, that didn’t seemed to change so much in the period (Araujo Guimarães, Barone e Brito, 2015). That meant an impressive decrease in the differential between participation probabilities of men and women in the labor market through the period 1960-2010. Nevertheless, a decrease in the differential on chances of entering the labor market does not necessarily mean decrease in the differential of outcomes between men and women once they decide to sell their labor force in the market. This paper aims at exploring this possible mismatch. Drawing on the analyzes of Guimarães and Biderman (2004) on Brazilian tendencies during the 90’s, which shows how, in a scenario of employment retraction, the sex and skin color attributes tend to play a very important role in explaining wage differentials, we will continue to explore household national surveys (PNAD) in order to analyze how the effects of those attributes vary in a context of increasing formal employment and wages, as observed in Brazil between 2000 and 2010. Are there substantial changes on patterns of gender/race inequalities when commodification of women’s work seems consolidated and wage inequalities tend do decrease in the society as a whole? Do changes in the chances of entering the labor market meant changes in labor market outcomes between men and women when more and better employment opportunities tend do increase?

Author

• Nadya A Guimarães, Universidade de São Paulo