Global Wage Report 2018/19: What lies behind gender pay gaps

The 2018/19 edition analyses the gender pay gap. The report focuses on two main challenges: how to find the most useful means for measurement, and how to break down the gender pay gap in ways that best inform policy-makers and social partners of the factors that underlie it. The report also includes a review of key policy issues regarding wages and the reduction of gender pay gaps in different national circumstances.

The global labour income share and distribution: Key findings

The global labour income distribution is lopsided: a worker in the top 10% earns US$7,445 (PPP) per month, a worker in the bottom 10% earns just US$22. The economic convergence of India and China is reducing global inequality, even if inequality is not decreasing in either country.

The working poor... or how a job is no guarantee of decent living conditions

This issue of ILOSTAT’s Spotlight on work statistics focuses on employed people living in extreme poverty around the world. Using ILO’s global estimates of employment by economic class, it shows the great progress achieved during the last few decades in reducing working poverty in the world, and how more effort is still needed to completely eradicate it, particularly considering the strong regional disparities.

Volunteer work and its links to the labour market experiences of young people

This paper looks at how volunteering can benefit young people at the start of their careers. It uses existing literature and undertakes further longitudinal analysis, including on the effects of volunteering on young people as they seek to access good jobs.

Global Wage Report 2020-21: Wages and minimum wages in the time of COVID-19

The 2020-21 edition of the Global Wage Report reviews minimum wage systems across the world and identifies the conditions under which minimum wages can reduce inequality. The report presents comprehensive data on levels of minimum wages, their effectiveness, and the number and characteristics of workers paid at or below the minimum. It highlights how adequate minimum wages, statutory or negotiated, can play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the crisis.

Making Women's Work Visible: The 19th ICLS Standards, Purpose and Progress

This Data2X-ILO joint report builds on previous ILO reports on how new measurement approaches can help close gender data gaps in the world of work by further illustrating the differences between how women and men work and how improved measurement can support women’s economic empowerment.

Rural and urban labour markets: Different challenges for promoting decent work

This issue of Spotlight on Work Statistics explores the rapid urbanization observed in the world and the accompanying shifts in employment from agriculture to non-agricultural activities. It sheds light on differences between rural and urban areas in labour force participation and labour underutilization (and especially unemployment). It also attempts to reveal differences in the quality of employment in rural and urban areas.

How COVID-19 is changing the world: a statistical perspective

This report, launched by 36 international organizations under the aegis of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities, provides a snapshot of some of the latest information available on how COVID-19 is affecting different aspects of public and private life. It also provides a glimpse into the challenges facing national statistical offices at the moment. At a time when statistics are most needed, many statistical systems are struggling to compile basic statistics, highlighting once again the need to invest in data and statistics, and the importance of having modern national statistical systems and data infrastructure.

Education pays off, but you have to be patient

The educational level of the world’s labour force is increasing, but it is not always easy for highly educated workers to find jobs matching their expectations. This Spotlight on Work Statistics explores the advantages and disadvantages of having a tertiary degree in the labour market.

From school to work: An analysis of youth labour market transitions

This brief presents an analysis of youth labour market outcomes, with a particular focus on two new school-to-work transition indicators published on ILOSTAT. It first introduces the new indicators. It then analyses the distribution of youth by stages of transition across a set of 60 countries for which the ILO has derived indicators from national labour force survey microdatasets.