GENDER AND SALARY DISCRIMINATION IN YEREVAN

UNCLAS YEREVAN 002326

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM AM
SUBJECT: GENDER AND SALARY DISCRIMINATION IN YEREVAN

Sensitive but Unclassified. Please protect
accordingly.

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SUMMARY
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1. (SBU) According to a new survey, equally qualified
men and women in Yerevan receive wildly disparate
salaries: on average, women in Yerevan receive 40
percent less than men. While the survey was too small
to be entirely reliable, the trends it demonstrated are
strongly supported by anecdotal evidence. End Summary.

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AEPLAC SURVEY RESULTS
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2. (U) The Armenian-European Policy and Legal Advice
Center (AEPLAC) together with the Armenian Sociological
Center recently presented the results of a June survey
on discrimination trends in the Yerevan labor market.
The survey aimed to reveal whether such factors as
gender, social status, place of residence and
nationality play a role in determining the salary. The
survey results are based on limited salary data
gathered from only 396 people. The survey contacted
1000 randomly selected respondents, of whom 599
technically belonged to the work force, only 420
respondents were actually employed. Of those who were
employed, 396 respondents agreed to share their salary
information. According to the survey results, while
men in Yerevan receive an average salary of 368.4
Armenian Drams (AMD) per hour (roughly USD 0.72),women
receive only 236.0 AMD (roughly USD 0.45). The average
proportion of married men in the workforce (84.4
percent of all surveyed men) is higher than that of
women (67.7 percent of all surveyed women.) In order
to find the reasons for these differences the
researchers processed the data through an econometrical
model.

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EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS MATTER
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3. (U) AEPLAC found that each year of education and a
strong knowledge of a foreign language increase the
salary by 4.1 percent and 17.6 percent, respectively.
Nonetheless, single women in Yerevan are paid 42.3
percent less than single men, while married women are
paid 46.9 percent less than married men. AEPLAC cites
this as an obvious example of gender discrimination.
The location of jobs also influences salary: people
working in downtown Yerevan earn 63.5 percent higher
salaries than those working in outlying suburbs.

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"EXPERTS" IN DENIAL
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4. (SBU) Gender experts and NGO representatives note
that the situation with gender discrimination in
Yerevan labor market was complex and varied by sectors;
these same experts admit, however, that they had never
considered salary discrepancies as discrimination,
noting that they had focused their attention on the
availability of jobs. The current labor market is so
small that professional qualification is the only major
criteria, and gender is irrelevant, one of the local
experts maintains. This AEPLAC survey, however,
demonstrates that gender discrimination exists and is a
continuing problem in both the public and private
sector.
GODFREY