When female labor markets in Canada, Mexico and the United States are compared it is notablethat despite the substantial differences in the economies of these countries, women workers in the three countries present several surprisingly similar labor market characteristics and trends. This is reflected in aspects such as the concentration by occupation and by economic sector, the share in part-time employment and in certain characteristics of female earnings. However, there are also noteworthy differences in some variables, such as the rates of participation, the workforce distribution by age, the average hours worked, the levels of education and unemployment.
During 1984-1996, the following were among the main characteristics of female employment:
The rate of participation of women in the labor force increased substantially during 1984-1996 in all three countries. Mexico had the greatest increase, within the participation rising of female workers 15 years and older rose nearly 10 percent, from 27.8 percent in 1984 to 37.4 percent in 1996. In Canada, the female participation rate increased from 54 percent in 1984 to 57.6 percent in 1996. In the United States, the rate of female participation has increased more rapidly than in Canada but less rapidly than in Mexico, rising from 53.6 percent in 1984 to 59.3 in 1996. In Mexico and the United States, the rate of participation grew during the whole period, while in Canada it remained essentially the same after 1993.
Some of the factors explaining the increasing share of women in the labor force in North America are the improvement of educational levels among the female population, the economic need for women to contribute to family income, more part-time job opportunities for women and the reduction in the fertility rate. The latter is an important factor mainly in Mexico, which experienced a very substantial decline in its fertility rate in the last 25 years. There is a strong correlation between lower fertility rates and higher rates of labor force participation, although the relationship reflects a complicated interplay of causality and reinforcement.
The increasing participation of women in the labor force has increased their share in family income. Nevertheless, it remains substantially lower than men's share, particularly in Mexico where women's income accounted for only 18 percent of total household income in 1994. In Canada, female income accounted for 31 percent of total family income in 1992. In the United States, women's earnings accounted for 34.1 percent of total family earnings in 1995.
There is a close relationship between educational levels and female participation in the labor force in all three countries: the higher the level of education, the higher the female participation rate. For example, in Canada the rate of participation for women with university degrees was 80.3 percent while it was 18 percent for women with eight or fewer years of education in 1996. Although there is a similar correlation for men, the difference in the rate of participation by level of education is less among men. For example, in Canada, the participation rate for men with university degrees stood at 85.1 percent, and at 37.6 percent for men with eight or fewer years of education. Differences in participation rates by level of education are even less in Mexico.
The greatest increases in the participation of women in the labor force were reported for women between the ages of 25 and 54 years in all three countries. In Mexico and in the United States, female participation rate of younger women (from 15 to 19 years old) also increased, while in Canada participation by this group decreased.
In all three countries wage and salaried employment (as compared to self-employment and unpaid work) is slightly more common among women than among men. In the United States, the share of female wage and salary workers of total female employment accounted for 93 percent in 1996, compared to a 90 percent share for men. The figures for Canada were 90 percent for women and 87.5 for men, and 60 percent and 58 percent, respectively for Mexico.
The occupational structure of the female labor force showed substantial growth in managerial and professional occupations, with major increases in Canada and the United States. At the same time, all three countries experienced reductions in the participation of women in clerical occupations. Nevertheless, in 1996, leading occupations among women in all three countries continued to involve education (teachers), healthcare (nurses), and posts such as clerks and secretaries, salespersons and service personnel in restaurants and cleaning activities. By sector, female employment is largely concentrated in social and personal services (above all, in activities related to healthcare and education) and in retail trade. With respect to employment in social and personal services, Canada has the highest proportion, with a total of 51.4 percent of female employment in 1996. In the case of retail trade, Mexico has the highest share, at 21.3 percent of female employment in 1996.
In North America, women workers account for a higher proportion of part-time employment than men. Mexico has the highest rate of part-time female employment, 39 percent of all female workers in 1996. The same year, the United States had the lowest proportion of part-time female employment, at 27 percent of women workers. In Canada, part-time employment growth has been substantially higher than full-time employment growth since 1990. A similar trend was reported in Mexico up until 1995. In contrast, in the United States, full-time employment of women grew at a higher rate than part-time employment until 1993. As of 1994, a marked increase in part-time work was noted.
The fact that part-time work is more common among women than among men in all three countries is also reflected in lower weekly average hours worked for women. The highest average working hours for women are found in Mexico, with a weekly average of 36.7 hours in 1996. In the same year, the average stood at 35.7 hours in the United States, followed by Canada, with 32.5 hours per week. During the same year, the average number of hours worked by men in these three countries stood at 44.7, 42.3 and 40.7 per week, respectively. When only hours of work for full-time workers are compared, women's average hours worked continue to be lower than men's, although the difference is less than for all workers.
Female employment stability, measured in terms of average job tenure, is significantly lower than the stability of male employment. This situation may be explained in part by the need for women to interrupt their work for maternity and childcare. Canadian female workers had an average of 7.1 consecutive years of work for the current employer in 1996, while the figure for men stood at 8.9 years. In the United States, the average number of years of work with the same employer for wage and salaried women stood at 6.1 years in February 1996, while the average for men stood at 7.3 years. In Mexico, female workers had an average of 6.7 years of work with the same employer in 1995; the figure for men stood at 8.4 years. Although the average stability of female employment has increased in the three countries, the percentage of women in jobs for five years or less is still high, compared to the proportion for men.
In all three countries, the earnings received by women workers are lower than those received by their male counterparts, although the differences have been reduced. This reduction of the earnings gap between men and women is mainly attributable to a better performance of female earnings than men's earnings during the period under review. In Canada, real earnings for full-time female workers grew at a higher rate than men's earnings during 1984 and 1996. In the same period in the United States real earnings for females increased, while men's earnings declined. In Mexico, real earnings of both men and women workers declined between 1991 and 1996, but the decrease was slightly less in the case of female workers.
The increasing share of female workers between the ages of 25 and 54 in total female employment in the three countries is another factor that may influence the closing earnings gap between women and men, since older workers have substantially higher earnings than younger workers in the three countries. Generally earnings of single men and women in North America are more similar than those of married men and women.
In all three countries there is considerable salary dispersion among women workers, For example, in the United States, the average remuneration level reported for the ninth decile of female employees was 108 percent higher than the remuneration for the fifth decile of female employees in 1996. The figure for the same deciles in Canada stood at 78 percent in 1994. In Mexico in 1992, earnings of female production workers in the manufacturing sector were 78 percent lower than earnings for female executives in the same sector. In comparison to the situation in 1981, female salary inequalities have grown considerably in the United States while salary dispersion has remained stable in Canada.
In regard to female unemployment, there are important differences among the three countries. In Canada, higher overall unemployment rates, longer average unemployment duration and a greater proportion of unemployed women with prior working experience characterize female unemployment. In Mexico, female unemployment is characterized by lower unemployment rates, a shorter average duration and by a higher incidence of voluntary unemployment (for personal reasons). The United States has a female unemployment rate between the other two countries, with a high proportion of unemployed women with prior working experience and a large proportion of women unemployed for involuntary reasons.
