Browsing by Author "Mackett, Odile"

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    A gender-based investigation of the determinants of labour market outcomes in the South African labour market
    (2016) Mackett, Odile
    In this report, the individual and household circumstances which influence the probability of a person having a certain labour market outcome, and how these outcomes differ by gender, will be investigated. While a number of similar studies have been conducted, this report contributes to the South African literature by investigating, using more recent data from the National Income Dynamics Study, what the determining factors are that drive women and men to the labour market, and determine employment outcomes. Furthermore, the investigation is extended by exploring whether these factors differ for men and women by age cohort. The main hypothesis of the study is that the determinants, which impact labour market outcomes and a successful transition from being not economically active or unemployed in a given period, to becoming employed in another period, differ for males and females; with factors such as education, labour market experience, and other household factors like marital status and children in the home being more important for women than for men. The results of the econometric analysis suggest that education is important for both sexes, but is of particular importance in determining the labour force participation and employment probabilities of women and the youth cohort. Furthermore, the location in which an individual resides is an important determinant of the labour market outcomes of women, with women in urban areas having the most favourable labour market outcomes. Having pensioners in the home has an adverse effect on the employment probabilities of men, while it is positively related to the employment probabilities of young women. Children in the home reduce the labour force participation of both men and women, but have a negative effect on the employment probabilities of women.
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    The measurement of decent work in South Africa: a new attempt at studying quality of work
    (2020-06) Mackett, Odile
    The quality of work is central to the growing inequalities in Africa and the world. Central to concerns about the decline in ‘labour share’ is the notion of decent work. In 1999, the International Labour Organisation coined the term ‘decent work’. The purpose of the Decent Work Agenda was not only to establish a definition of good work which can be used as a yardstick for workers, but also to create unity among workers, governments, and employers. Since the development of the term, numerous studies have been undertaken on the quantifiable aspects of the decent work framework, however, almost each study undertaken on the topic has measured different aspects of decent work or limited its enquiry to certain aspects of the definition of the term. As such, no study has measured decent work in a way which is reproducible without the resources which are required to undertake a survey. The purpose of this study is to construct a decent work index, using an iteration of the South African Labour Force Survey. This is useful firstly to identify measures which currently exist in secondary data and it is secondly beneficial in identifying shortcomings in relation to the use of the Labour Force Survey to measure decent work. Using sub-major (2-digit) occupation groups as units of analysis, the study found that there is an expected pattern around how occupations measure in relation to their degree of ‘decency’, meaning that higher paid professionals tend to have more decent occupations compared to low-skilled workers in elementary occupations. However, the higher up the occupational ladder the occupation is, the lower they score in terms of certain indicators, such as decent working time, and balancing work, family, and personal life. Furthermore, the study finds that occupation groups often score differently when the indicators which make up the decent work index are viewed individually rather than as a composite index. These findings imply that operationalising the idea and practice of decent work to understand and address inequality is no easy matter, but that democratising work to highlight the needs and preferences of workers could be one step in the right direction. At the minimum, it requires some engagement with different aspects of decent work in relation to different occupations. Analytically, a more nuanced conceptualisation of decent work is preferable to simple wage-based approaches often utilised by organisations representing the interests of workers.
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    Unpaid reproductive labour and decent work in the South African labour market
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2022) Mackett, Odile; Pillay, Pundy
    Since the 1970s, women’s increased labour force participation has caught the attention of scholars, governments, labour unions and organisations such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The increase in female labour force participation has accompanied the globalisation and liberalisation of product and labour markets around the world. As a result, the ILO developed the ‘decent work agenda’ (DWA) to set a standard by which to measure the labour market vulnerability of workers. The DWA is an aspirational statement about the sort of work that ought to define the lives of all who work and who want to work. Unpaid reproductive labour, which is performed outside of the productive labour market and predominantly by women, has proven to be a major constraint for women’s advancement in paid work. Furthermore, despite gender equality in the workplace being listed as one of the main objectives of the DWA, in instances where unpaid labour has not intersected with the productive labour market, it has largely been ignored. This study empirically investigated whether the ILO’s DWA is conceptualised in a way that reflects a commitment to real gender equality in the labour market by demonstrating a link between work performed unpaid in service of the household and the quality or ‘decency’ of wage work. Using Labour Force Survey and Time-Use Survey data, theresults showed that the more time an employed individual spent on unpaid reproductive labour, the worse the quality of their paid job. However, this relationship was only significant for women and only during a period when the government undertook a contractionary fiscal approach. The findings of this study demonstrate important links between the household and the public sector and the extent to which women, through their household labour, keep the economy running when government and business are unable to do so