The Wage Gap between Men and Women in Botswana's Formal Labour Market

This study looks at the wage gap between men and women in Botswana'sformal sector labour market. The wage gap is decomposed usingOaxaca's decomposition methodology. This method breaks downearnings differences into two parts: one part is due to differencesin characteristics between men and women, while the other partis due to differences in rewards to those characteristics inthe labour market. The latter has often been interpreted asa measure of the extent of the discrimination against women.The results of the decomposition exercise shows that there isrelatively less discrimination in the public sector, while inthe private sector discrimination against women is a major factorexplaining the differences in their earnings.     

RATES OF RETURN TO EDUCATION IN BOTSWANA: RESULTS FROM THE 2002/2003 HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND EXPENDITURE SURVEY DATA SET

Using the most recent Household Income and Expenditure Survey data (2002/2003), this paper presents current rates of return to education for Botswana. The results show that the rates of return have in general declined by one percentage point on average between the periods as shown in Table 2 . If we, however, look at the averages for the different school cycles, the fall in the average rates is quite significant at about six percentage points between the periods. The biggest fall is for secondary education, especially upper secondary education, which fell by 28 percentage points between the periods. The rates of return to tertiary education, however, rose by more than 50 percentage points. Ignoring upper secondary, the pattern of rates of return has remained similar to the results of the study based on the 1993/1994 data. Rates are higher for tertiary education and lower for secondary than for primary education. This results are still consistent with rates of return generally rising with level of education. At policy level, the results continue to support sharing of costs between Government and beneficiaries or their parents especially at tertiary education level. Second, the results indicate the need for the country to continue to vigorously pursue job creation and reorient the education system from emphasis on white collar jobs.

Table 2. Mincerian earnings function: overall Ψ
Dependent variable (ln monthly earnings)

Botswana's economy and labour market: are there any lessons for SADC regional integration?

Regional integration is a necessity for sustainable development and the generation of dynamic growth amongst SADC countries. For real integration to be achieved, there is a need for deep integration, which allows countries to surrender part of their sovereignty to a supranational power that will be responsible for bringing in uniformity amongst member nations in terms of policies and action. Countries in the region, even those like Botswana that have done well economically, share problems of poverty, high unemployment and disparity in income distribution. Botswana, however, has some lessons to offer to the region, coming mainly from its prudent management of the economy, democracy and peace. As regional integration may lead to underinvestment in skills development if not properly coordinated, countries need to pursue employment creation more vigorously.     

Education and the labour market in Botswana

Using primary data from a 1993/4 Household Income and Expenditure Survey in Botswana, this article presents empirical results on occupational attainment, its determinants, and the extent of filtering down in Botswana's labour market, given changes in labour market conditions over time. It was found that the Botswana labour market has been characterised by some ‘filtering down’ of educated workers into less skilled jobs as the supply of skilled manpower exceeded demand. Those who entered the labour market earlier, those with more education, those located in the urban areas and male workers are more likely to occupy jobs that are higher up in the hierarchy than to be in an unskilled blue-collar job. Jobs higher up in the hierarchy are also more rewarding financially. The article shows that there is occupational segregation of workers by gender in Botswana's labour market in that female workers are generally confined to a narrow range of occupations. The policy implications are that employment creation has to be pursued vigorously and the issue of gender discrimination investigated further.