A/HRC/26/39
47.
There is a related problem of segregation in the formal labour market, with women
clustered in “pink collar”, largely service sector, jobs with inferior working conditions, less
job security and lower pay. In high-income countries, more than 85 per cent of employed
women work in the service sector, primarily in education and health. In order to address
wage gaps resulting from occupational segregation, the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women and ILO Conventions require equal pay for
equal work or for work of equal value, comparable in skill, responsibility, effort and
working conditions. The ILO guide to gender-neutral job evaluation9 provides an objective
evaluation system. The ILO also recommends that policies to combat occupational
segregation also encourage men to enter occupations traditionally associated with women.
Informal work
48.
Women are concentrated in higher numbers than men in informal work, not
recognized, recorded, protected or regulated by the public authorities, and overrepresented
in precarious, atypical and vulnerable work or employment. There are extreme examples in
which 93 per cent of women workers are in informal work.
49.
The informal sector includes casual and seasonal workers, part-time workers,
temporary and agency workers, home workers, domestic workers, unpaid family workers
and also some forms of self-employment, such as street hawkers. Informal employment is
growing in both developing and developed countries: the workforce is becoming
increasingly “flexibilized” as employers attempt to avoid regulation and cut labour costs.
50.
Women in the informal economy have, furthermore, been deeply affected by
economic crisis. There is an “added worker” effect, whereby women enter the labour force
to provide additional income security to the household, often forcing them into precarious
work, migrant labour overseas or exposing them to trafficking. According to Women in
Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing, nearly 40 per cent of street vendors
interviewed in developing countries in 2009 had experienced an overall deterioration of
employment and income levels, and 84 per cent of own-account home-based workers
reported reduced monthly incomes.
Domestic and migrant workers
51.
Domestic workers caring for children, the disabled and ageing people, are a highly
vulnerable category of employees, often in the informal sector. About 83 per cent are
women or girls, and many are migrant workers. Domestic workers often encounter
deplorable working conditions; labour exploitation; extortionate recruitment fees resulting
in debt; confiscation of passports; long, unregulated hours of work; lack of privacy;
exposure to physical and sexual abuse; and separation from their own families and children.
The ILO Domestic Workers Convention (No. 189) calls for States to guarantee decent work
for domestic workers, and thus several countries have introduced new protections.
52.
Women migrant workers face exploitation and abuse, often finding themselves in
precarious employment without effective legal protections, particularly if they have
irregular or undocumented legal status. About half of the world’s migrant workers are
women, most of them finding work in traditionally female-dominated occupations such as
domestic work or in the garment and textile industries. General Recommendation No. 26 of
the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, on women migrant
workers, emphasizes that all categories of women migrants must be protected against
9
ILO, Promoting Equity: Gender-neutral Job Evaluation for Equal Pay: a Step-by-Step Guide
(Geneva, 2008).
11