No abstract

Policy makers and researchers are alarmed by the pervasive substandard working conditions and mistreatment in domestic work worldwide. Using an original dataset from a sample of domestic workers in Portugal (n=684), our study explores types of abuse and harassment and tries to unveil the potential factors affecting the likelihood of having been a victim. Empirical evidence pointed to three segments of domestic workers: victims of labour abuses related to contract and wages, victims of multiple abuses including mistreatment and also psychological and sexual harassment, and a segment with no occurrence of abuse. Informal workers are more often victims of labour abuses, while migrants, especially Brazilian women, are more likely to report all types of abuse and harassment. On the other hand, carers of the elderly often suffered multiple abuses. The results suggest that despite the prevalence of labour abuses in Portugal, the most severe abuses are uncommon.

The authors use an original cross‐sectional data set to examine the impact of informal and flexible contractual arrangements on the wages of domestic workers hired by private employers in Portugal. OLS estimations suggest that formality benefits workers, whether they have a stable or a flexible contract. However, social and labour market processes help to shape and maintain inequality, especially for migrant workers. Although skills are undervalued and do not generate rewards, higher wages are identified for workers who are engaged in contingent work, work for multiple employers or provide care for the elderly. However, such workers are still subject to exploitation and insecurity.

decomposition of the gender wage gap in Portugal, 1998-2007: the evidence of gender discrimination aBstraCtThe purpose of this article is to analyse the gender wage gap in Portugal by applying the counterfactual decomposition method employed by Machado and Mata (2005). In order to obtain a measure for wage discrimination at different quantiles, wage function estimation is based on quantile regression analysis (Koenker and Basset 1978), using datasets from the Inquérito ao Emprego (IELFS -Portuguese Labour Force Survey) of 1998 and 2007. The decomposition of gender wage inequality shows potential wage discrimination by gender due to the differences in the returns of working men's and women's characteristics. This discrimination increases across the whole distribution, for both 1998 and 2007. Although differences in the working men's and women's characteristics declined, the results show empirical evidence of the persistence of the discrimination effect in 2007 -at the same level. In addition, Maria da Conceição Figueiredo … 288 1. Recently the Social Security records data have also been used to study the labour market and wage inequality (Centeno, Machado and Novo 2008). Oaxaca-Blinder's standard decomposition approach, developed in 1973, was applied. The results confirm the average gender wage gap does not reflect the reality observed throughout the wage distribution, inasmuch as it overestimates what happens in lower-level quantiles and underestimates those of the higher levels.

Our study draws on the Portuguese linked employer-employee data (2007–2019) to examine the type of occupations assigned to young bachelor and master graduates. Empirical findings show positive signs but sound some alarms. Postgraduates are assigned to high-skilled jobs that could be done by bachelors, who are more likely to work in skilled non-manual or even elementary occupations. The wage gap across levels of education is increasing, thus devaluing the bachelor’s degree. We found that the wages of all young people declined due to the economic recession. The data show a gap between bachelor’s and master’s after the consolidation of the higher education reform. The expansion of higher education increased the supply of graduates, with the most marked consequences seen at the bachelor level.