Part Two: Report by Article
Article 11
Article 11. 1. (d)
1. Equal Remuneration in Respect of Work of Equal Value
Article 4 of the Labour Standards Law prohibits discriminatory treatment in wages solely based on gender. As to the gap in average wages between men and women workers (excluding part-time workers), the average wage of women workers was 65.5% of men workers in 2000, and the gap has been gradually narrowing. It is thought that this gap stems largely from the difference in type and rank of job and from the fact that the women's length of working years is shorter than that of men.
As for measures to eliminate the difference between men and women in terms of the field of work, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has been endeavoring to ensure through proactive administrative guidance the implementation of the "Revised Equal Employment Opportunity Law," which prohibits such acts as the discrimination against women in recruitment/hiring, assignment and promotion, or the practice of employment of "women only" or with "preferential treatment of women" with a recognizable effect on fixing the women's field of work and separating men's duties from women's. The Ministry also supports the spread of Positive Action to close the existing gap between men and women workers.
As for measures to eliminate the difference between men and women in the length of service, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is actively promoting measures to manage working life and family life and to shorten working hours so that both men and women can continue to work while playing their roles as a member of family, including caring for children and other family members.
At the same time, in order to eliminate these differences between men and women, it is important to correct the rigid way of thinking about abilities and roles of men and women, underlying such differences. To this end, the Ministry has been conducting public awareness activities continuously.
Furthermore, the Ministry has been providing correctional guidance for violations of these provisions under the Labour Standards Law.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has established a study group between FY2001 to FY2002 to analyze the causes of the wage gap between men and women and to assess the effects of corporate wages and benefits systems and others on the wage gap.
2. Measurement and Quantification of Women's Unpaid Work in the Household
(1) Basic Survey Related to Time-Budget
The Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications conducted the Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities with the objective of clarifying the national time-budget activities, as of 20 October 2001. In this survey, it was intended to enrich basic data contributing to the quantitative understanding of unpaid work at home including housework while keeping the items of the previous questionnaire.
(2) Valuation of Unpaid Work
In May 1997, the Cabinet Office (the former Economic Planning Agency) published its estimate of monetary value of housework, social activities and other unpaid work.
This report shows that the monetary value (in terms of Opportunity Cost Method*) of unpaid work in 1996 totaled ¥116 trillion, accounting for 23% of the GDP. Unpaid work done by women was estimated at ¥98 trillion, or 85% of the total.
The result of the study of Elderly Care and Childcare Satellite Accounting was publicized in June 2000. Elderly Care and Childcare Satellite Accounting aims at grasping the monetary value of society-wide costs of production and spending activities in relation to "elderly care and childcare service," thereby contributing to understanding and analyzing the economic aspect of elderly care and childcare services. Here "elderly care and childcare services" include the services provided by the Government as social welfare services, paid services provided by enterprises and the services provided by family members free of charge which are not usually monetarily valuated. Particularly, the monetary value of the "elderly care and childcare services done by family members" was calculated by applying the above-mentioned opportunity cost method. The result shows that the production value of family services is the largest among the sectors with elderly care at ¥1.7 trillion (37% of the entire elderly care service production value) and childcare at ¥7.3 trillion (74% of the entire childcare service production value).
Breaking down this production value of family services, it becomes evident that women and mothers accounted for an extremely high percentage: for elderly care divided by gender, women accounted for 82%; and for childcare divided by father, mother, grandfather and grandmother, mothers made up 86%.
*Opportunity Cost Method is obtained by evaluating lost profits incurred by a person who gives up providing his/her labour on the market in order to engage in unpaid work.
Back to Index