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Tijdens, K., Besamusca, J., Kane, A. and Ngeh Tingum, E., 2012. Wages in Senegal: WageIndicator survey 2012. |
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This WageIndicator Data Report presents the results of the face-to-face WageIndicator survey in Senegal, conducted between the 13h of September and 2nd of October 2012. In total 1,948 persons from almost all administrative regions were interviewed; 56% were men and 47% were under 30 years old. The workers in the survey live in households with on average five members, four of ten live with children and partners. On a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high), less than half of the respondents (43%) rate their satisfaction with life a six or lower and a high 32% score an 8 or higher. On average, the interviewees score a 7. Nearly half of the workers had certificates from secondary education (44%). Sixteen per cent of workers followed no formal education, 21% stopped at primary education, 14% had a bachelor or master university degree. On average, respondents worked for 10 years. More than half of the people in the sample work in an organization with 10 or fewer employees (54%). The average working week of respondents is more than 55 hours and they work six days per week. Six in ten workers regularly work shifts, three in ten work evenings, six in ten workers report working Saturdays, while four in ten work Sundays. The biggest group of interviewees worked in wholesale and retail trade (17%). Just over a tenth (10%) worked in human health and social work activities and just a little fewer in financial and insurance activities (9.6%). Nearly half of the workers in the sample are employed as managers, which includes all business owners. Sizeable groups of respondents work in services and sales (15%) and as plant and machine operators (5%). One in ten workers is self-employed (11%), two in ten workers are employees with a permanent contract (20%), almost three in ten have a fixed term contract (26%) and four in ten have no contract at all (41%). Three in ten workers (31%) state that they are entitled to social security. Almost half of all workers state that they have no agreed working hours (49%). One third get their wages transferred to a bank account, two thirds get them cash in hand. Up to 46% of workers are in what can be qualified as very informal jobs, without social security, agreed hours or contracts, whereas 13% are in the very formal jobs. The median net hourly wage of the total sample is 358.49 Senegal Franc (XOF). Workers in firms with less than ten employees earn a lot less than employees of bigger firms. The analysis also shows that the more informal a jobs is, the lower the net hourly wages. Those on the lowest end of the informality scale earn only 186 XOF per hour, whereas those in the highest end earn wages far above that (median is 962 XOF). Employees with permanent contracts have by far the highest earnings (747 XOF), whereas workers without a labour contract (171 XOF) have the lowest earnings. Median wages increase with every level of education. Payoffs are small for the first levels of education and increase as the level gets higher. Workers without formal education earn on average 153 XOF, whereas those with university education earn 866 XOF. Managers have the highest median wages (513 XOF), followed by clerical support workers (481 XOF) and technicians and associate professionals (268 XOF). The lowest paid workers are the plant and machine operators, and assemblers (141 XOF), followed by the elementary occupations (153 XOF) and the craft and related trades workers (164 XOF). Women have higher median earnings than men, but men have higher mean earnings (711 versus 643 XOF), pointing to the fact that men are more found in the upper tail of the wage distribution. The result of the analysis shows that 91% of the sample is paid on or above the poverty line of 41 XOF per hour (or 1.25 US Dollars per day), whereas 9% is paid below the poverty line. Only 85% of informal workers are paid above the poverty line compared to 99% of the most formal workers. Men are less often paid above the poverty line than women (89% versus 94%). Workers under 30 years are most vulnerable: 88% is paid on or above the poverty line, compared to 94% of workers above 50 years old. Workers in large firms are least often paid above the poverty line (82%), compared to 93% of workers in firms employing between 11 and 50 people. Self-employed workers are the single most vulnerable group, only just over four in five (83%) are paid more than the poverty line. Less than four in five workers with no education and slightly more than four in five workers with elementary education are paid above the poverty line, compared to 97% and 99% of workers who finished general secondary or university education respectively. More than nine in ten managers are paid above the poverty line and almost as many clerical support workers (94%). In contrast, four in five (81%) of the plant and machine operators, and assemblers earn more than the poverty line and just a few more (83%) skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers do. Workers in trade, transport and hospitality are most at risk of poverty (90% paid below the poverty line). Public sector workers are best of, 98% of them earning a wage above the poverty line. |
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