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Egyptian Women Workers and Entrepreneurs
compensation about equal to the upper poverty line estimated in a national study by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2003. Low salaries are much more prevalent in private firms than in the public sector. Females are more than twice as likely as males to be poorly paid, in both the private and public sectors, with more than 16 percent of females in the private sector earning less than LE150 a month.2 In the private sector, men are five times as likely as women to earn at least LE400 a month. The gender differential is much smaller in public enterprises. In both the private and public sectors, about 20 percent of employees are not compensated for overtime, with females about six percentage points more likely than males not to be compensated. Females are somewhat more likely to work more days a week than males, but daily working hours tend to be slightly longer for males (El-Kogali 2000).
Women’s Contributions to Family Expenses and Responsibility for Household Spending About half of respondents live in households in which both partners are responsible for daily spending. Female respondents claim to be responsible for daily spending more often than male respondents. Divergence in their perceptions may reflect imperfect correspondence between groups (female respondents are not necessarily the wives of male respondents). Eighteen percent of married women in the Investment Climate Survey report that relatives or other people rely on them to satisfy their needs, including their living expenses. The load is lighter for unmarried women, 3.6 percent of whom report that others rely on them to satisfy their needs. Among male respondents, 13.3 percent report contributing to satisfying the needs of others who do not live with them, mainly by contributing to dependents’ expenses. Single women make significant contributions to family expenditures. Almost 70 percent report making contributions, of which 17.8 turn over their entire income to their family and another 29.7 percent give at least half their earnings. The majority of married women are parallel rather than secondary family breadwinners. Among married women, 3.4 percent are the sole breadwinner in the family and 61.8 percent provide half or more of their families’ total income. Among women who were never married, 6.9 percent are the sole breadwinners in their families, and 26.8 percent provide at least half their family’s income.