Page 41 - IDEA Study 3 2018 Low skilled

Third, there is substantially more women among the low-skilled than men in the Czech Republic and they are much more likely to be inactive. We have shown that there is a large gender wage gap among the low-skilled in the private sector, suggesting that low-skilled women have even lower incentives to work than men. On top of that, as women are typically secondary wage earners, they are subject to a higher effective tax rate when deciding to enter the labor market than men (Šatava, 2016). Further, as the primary care- givers, low-skilled mothers also face the same constraints as other Czech women in terms of the lack of affordable child care and flexible work conditions that enable them to balance work and family life (Kalíšková, 2017). Finally, the low-skilled mothers of young children are unlikely to be eligible for job protection (due to the high share of temporary contracts in this group). As a result, their re-integration into the labor market after parental leave is even more difficult than in other skill groups. Policies aimed at reintegrating inactive low- skilled women and, in particular, low-skilled mothers of young children, need to take these aspects into account. Finally, the low-level of skills is often combined with other socio-economic problems such as welfare dependence, indebtedness, poverty, domestic violence, and criminality. To be effective, policies aimed at reintegrating the low-skilled into the labor market must consider and address these aspects as well. 8.2. Low-skilledintheLaborMarket The group of the low-skilled who participate in the labor market also faces its specific problems. First, the low-skilled typically have a much higher unemployment rate than the other skill-groups. While they have a lower chance of finding a job due to the lower level of skills, they are also more likely to lose their jobs as they are less likely to acquire firm- specific human capital while working. Given the low level of skills and the often temporary nature of these workers’ jobs, employers do not have significant incentives to invest in their human capital (e.g. via job training) as compared to the other skill groups. Moreover, they often work on temporary contracts and have to search for a job (become unemployed) when the contract ends. This is also the situation of the low-skilled in the Czech Republic. Their unemployment rate (11.4%) is more than two times higher than the lower middle-skilled, and almost half of those who work do not have a permanent contract. The high job turnover results in 39