An Analysis of Gender and Ethnic Wage Differentials among Youth in Sri Lanka
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growing; about 60 percent of children ages 3 to 5 were estimated to have participated in preschool education in 2001 (World Bank 2005).10 However, no information is available on the hours of child care provided per day. Sri Lankan maternity leave benefits during the period under study fully covered 84 days, which was on the upper boundary of the international norm of 12 to 14 weeks (Rodgers 1999). Provision of coverage and compliance are required only in the public sector and regulated private sector. Because there is no state allowance, the burden of providing leave in the private sector falls on the employer, creating a disincentive for employers to hire married women. The employment of women in the regulated sector is also subject to night-time work prohibitions and overtime limits. Table 9.1 indicates that a lower share of married women work in the largely unregulated private sector and a higher share in the public sector. These figures are consistent with higher labor force attachment of females where compliance with maternity benefits is mandatory and workers may not be terminated. However, they could also be consistent with employment discrimination, if private sector workers avoided hiring married women and used subtle means to encourage married women to leave their jobs voluntarily before they give birth. The shares of married women in the Tamil and Moor samples in the public sector were not significantly different from each other, but both were significantly lower than the share of Sinhalese married women in the public sector.11 Greater attachment in the agriculture sector is consistent with lower child-care constraints, either because of employers’ actions, as in the provision of crèches in the plantations, or because of the flexibility provided by the nature of the hours and location of work and child-care provision within the family. In the agriculture sector, shares of married Tamil women were significantly higher than either of the other two ethnic groups. This is consistent with better institutional provision of child care for Tamil women in the plantation sector than for Sinhalese and Moor women who work in the unregulated nonplantation agriculture sector.12 The main employment and wage protection institutions that influence sectoral and occupational choice (segregation) in Sri Lanka are severance pay provisions embodied in the Termination of Employed Workmen’s Act (Special Provisions) Act of 1971 (TEWA), the wagesetting mechanism and collective bargaining, and civil service hiring practices (World Bank 2006). Broadly speaking, while protecting employment, TEWA favors older employees (insiders) and restricts firm