1Executive report

Spain is positioned 29th out of the 144 countries studied in the Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum, which estimates that it has achieved a reduction of its gender gap close to 75% so far. However, there are still many inequalities that persist between men and women.From this evidence, ClosinGap arises. The objective of this cluster, which was presented publicly on September 7, 2018, is to analyse the opportunity cost for the Spanish eco-nomy of the persistence of gender inequalities in areas such as health, conciliation, pensions, use of free time, consumption, tourism, mobility or digitalisation. In other words, to measure the effects that these gaps and their social consequences have regarding the economy and the loss of female talent, and determining how much Spanish growth decelerates due to it not taking advantage of the full potential of women. On the other hand, it seeks to generate the necessary debate in our society in order to accelerate the closing of the global gender gap that, according to the World Economic Forum, could take us around 202 years at the current rate.

ClosinGap:analysing the opportunity cost of gender inequality

Executive ReportWomen for a healthy economy | February 2019

The first report published, sponsored by the Science and Technology company Merck, analysed the opportunity cost of the gender gap in health. The study showed, for example, that the four years women live longer than men, but with worse health, costs at least 9 billion euros per year to socie-ty; or that the low birth rate, associated with unfavourable social and economic conditions, subtracted 31.003 billion euros from Spanish GDP in 2016.

2Executive report

IREPORT II. The opportunity cost of the gender gap in work-life balance

The second study of the series has been prepared by Afi and driven by Repsol, a global company with presence throughout the whole energy value chain and a leader in Spain promoting new forms of work that guarantee a balance between personal and professional life.

The report, that analyses the opportunity cost of the gender gap in the area of work-life balance, is based on three key concepts: • Gender gap in work-life balance. A set of inequalities by gender - which, therefore, can be avoided- that determines

the availability and use of the time for men and women to attend to all aspects of their daily lives.

• Opportunity cost. The economic value of the rejected alternative when deciding on a specific action or expense. This value equals the benefits that would have been obtai-ned from having chosen the best possible alternative. • Replacement cost. Economic value of housework that could be outsourced to professionals or specialists, mainly in the services sector.

Schedules are a structural element that condition men and women, since the capacity and freedom to distribute our time throughout the day is determined by the hours established for the start and end of the most frequently performed activities.

Due to the roles assigned or performed, management of the scheduling conflict falls mainly in women, and the domestic chores (the children and home) are, by far, the most unequal between men and women in relation to at-tention and time spent competing said tasks.

Causes of the gender gaps in work-life balance

Biological Social

Schedules, Composition, Head of household, Care

(family / home), work market, stereotypes / expectations

The double working day of women affects their partici-pation in the labour market and their professional develo-pment, especially in terms of choice of the working day. However, the problem imposed by current schedules, toge-ther with the gender roles still prevailing in our society, are also related to men and society as a whole: working days in Spain are longer than in the rest of the OECD countries while productivity per hour is lower. This means that there is room for improvement in relation to the inefficiencies and inequalities in the organisation of the working day.

Despite women being more qualified than men, they have less time to progress in their work due to the sa-crificies associated with the family. This happens despite the fact that raising a family is a a desire almost equally sha-red between both men and women, as well as a necessary condition to guarantee the demographic health and the ge-nerational sustainability of a country..

Effects of the gender gap in work-life balance

Achieving a satisfactory balance between work and perso-nal life has effects in the economy and on the welfare of people, while the inability to achieve this balance reduces the capacity to generate income and produces costs (direct, indirect and intangible), affects the demographic and eco-

nomic health of the country, the quality of human capital, the productivity and the growth potential of people and economy.

When this level of work-life balance is different between men and women, we face a gender gap.

Thus, the main economic effects of gender inequality in ter-ms of work-life balance are (i) birth and demographic ba-lance; (ii) employment, income level and pensions; (iii) tax revenues and private consumption; (iv) waste of talent; (v) loss of efficiency and productivity; (vi) work and personal satisfaction and social participation; and (vii) availability of free time.

The calculation of the opportunity cost in economic terms (or the substitution cost, as the case may be) is based on the estimation that the different effects of the gender gap in work-life balance have on the economy and on welfare of people and society, through its impact on the capacity to generate income, on the quality of human capital and on the allocation of resources, among others.

22.6% of working-age W and 2.5% of working-age M give up employment for childcare and housework. M-W ratio of

1: 9 32.6% of employed W and 45.6% of

employed M employed on a part-time contract. M-W ratio of 1: 1.4

24.2% employed W and 7.3% employed M work part-time. M-W ratio of 1: 3.

1 out of 5 women work part-time for looking after the children and home (4.7%

of employed women)

Late work days (time of entry and exit)

Long working days (entry and exit, number of hours worked)

Desynchronisation between labour and educational schedules

Desynchronisation between Spanish and European schedules

3Executive report

These are the main effects by group of identified causes:

Exit and / or obsolescence of women from

the labour market.

Childcare leave: Ratio M-W: 1: 9

Negative perception of the effects of

having children in labour projection: M-W

ratio 1: 2.6.

Main dissatisfaction and demographic

health: M and W want to have children

equally (=proportion, =number of

children).

50% of W of 45 years of age without

children would have liked to have them.

Reasons: work-life balance and economy.

Waste of investment in higher education

of women who give up the labour market

due to maternity.

maternidad.

Ámbito personal y familiar

Conjunto de la economía y sociedad

Presupuestos públicos

Overstrain and time spent by women in childcare and work: 2 hours per day, distributed in 80%

(household) -20% (children).

This work is unpaid, invisible and not recognised or valued by society.

Loss of potential public revenues from taxes and social contributions

if recognised or provided by the market.

5.5% of employed men work overtime compared to 3.6% of women.

Only half of the overtime is paid.

Opportunity cost

Schedules and conciliation

The double working day for women

Working shift choice

Strategies for mutual benefit

Potential of women’s talent

Cualitative projection Cuantitative estimation

Desynchronisation between labour and educational schedules

Shift split of working days (2-hour lunch break)

Source: Afi

Spaniards do not have enough time to have a work-life balance because working hours are very long compa-red to the surrounding countries. The split shift with a break of two hours for lunch is a Spanish singularity in Europe and, in terms of work-life ba-lance, means one hour less of availa-ble time each working day for 40% of employees who have this shift. This means a loss of 1.706 billion hours of free time per year.

If this situation is reconsidered, it would be possible to leave work one hour before without losing working hours, and this hour could be used for personal enjoyment and to have a be-tter work-life balance.

In addition, the desynchronisation between work and school calendars (compulsory education) means a gap

of 35 working days for about 50% of Spanish households - those formed by a couple with minor children and single parents. This period is equiva-lent to 7 weeks in which minors do not have to go to school but do need to be in adult care. The rationalisation of working hours is, therefore, a necessary instru-ment to gain efficiency and improve work-life balance so that workers can meet all their personal responsibilities and also have some enjoyment.

4Executive report

01Schedules and work-life balance

The split shift with a two-hour break for lunch, a unique occurence in Spain, means a loss of 1.706 billion hours per year, that could be used for personal enjoyment and better conciliation.

The social conception of the role of women as family caretakers and being responsible for domestic tasks con-ditions the distribution of their time. Among daily activities, only those re-lated to family and the home received, on average, much greater attention from women compared to men. This imbalance conditions the distribution of their time for other activities, such as employment and leisure.

Thus, women spend approximate-ly two hours more per day than men in these activities, while men spend 1 hour and 12 minutes more than wo-men in paid work. Taking into account the number of working-age men and women undertaking housework and family care in Spain, as well as the amount of time spent on these tas-ks, men spend 37.5 million hours a day on these tasks compared to 87 million hours spent by women. If this inequality were eliminated, women would have, globally, 49.5 million more hours a day.

The gross cost of outsourcing the-se services, that is, the value of the gender gap that implies that women spend more time on these tasks than men, is more than 100 billion euros (8.9% of 2017 GDP). Almost 90% of it is related to domestic tasks. In addition, as regards the collection of taxes (especially IRPF- Personal In-come Tax-), as well as the social con-tributions resulting from this unpaid

work, the state would receive around 39,659 million euros, equivalent to more than 1.2 times the interest of the Spanish debt in 2017.

5Resumen ejecutivo

02The double working day for women

The value of the gender gap that implies that women spend two more hours a day than men on housework an child care, is more than 100 billion euros, 8.9% of GDP.

Difference of the average daily duration (ADD) of activities between women and men (difference W-M; mm: ww)Source: Afi from the OECD.Stat and the latest INE Time Use Survey.

-2:24 -1:12 0 1:12 2:24

-1:12

Personal care Paid work Studies Media Home and family Volunteer work and meetings Hobbies and computing Activities and outdoor sports Social life and fun Journeys and use of unspecified time

-0:07

-0:08

-0:17

-0:19

-0:27

-0:23

-0:11

-0:04

1:57

The responsibility for family care and domestic tasks generally falls to wo-men. This affects the economy and the labour market negatively, since some of these women choose to give up, to-tally or partially, their career. Women work more frequently on a continuous day shift than men (13.2 points of difference), with less on a split shift (45.6% of men compared to 32.6% of women). In addition, 24.2% of employed women worked part-ti-me during 2017, a percentage three times higher than men (7.3%). In 2017, one out of five women who worked partially (4.7% of the total employed) chose this type of working day to make work time compatible with children or adult care (sick, de-pendentor elderly) and other family or personal obligations.

If those 403,200 women who wor-ked part-time in order to attend their home and family had extended their working hours by one more hour per day (in 2017, they worked 17 hours a week on average), they would have generated about 3 billion euros more (0.3% of GDP). If they eventually extended their working day up to 4 hours daily (which means around 40 hours weekly), they could generate about 12 billion additional euros for the Spanish economy, 1.1% of GDP in 2017.

6Executive report

03Working shift choice

Share of workers according to working day schedule and gender (2017)Source: Afi with data from the Active Population Survey (EPA, INE)

100%

50%

0%

Men Women

If the more than 400,000 women who worked part-time in 2017 in order to attend family care had extended their working hours to 40 hours a week, they could have generated an additional 12 billion euros for the Spanish economy, 1.1% of GDP.

7.3%

92.7%

75.8%

24.2%

Full time Part time

The distribution and organisation of work are key to improving the efficiency of the labour market. However, the distribution of time spent at work and with family and household responsibilities is unbalanced by gender among the adults who form these households. This fact not only undermines the participation of women in the labour market, but also negatively affects household income.

In addition, Spain is one of the European countries with more working hours, which does not translate into a higher level of labour productivity per hour. Longer working days do not always mean higher remuneration:

half of the overtime worked during 2017 was not paid.

In 2017, 5.5% of employed men worked overtime compared to 3.6% of employed women. Only half of this overtime was paid, regardless of the gender of the worker. This not only means an overstrain, but also reduces the time to have a work-life balance. Therefore, the freeing up of unpaid overtime hours - that amount to 183 hours or 1,878 euros per worker per year - would increase their time to have a work-life balance, as well as their involvement in household and family tasks.

7Executive report

04Strategies for mutual benefit

5.5% of employed men worked overtime in 2017 and only half of these hours were paid. The freeing up of these hours would mean 1,878 euros per worker per year and 183 additional hours that would increase their time to have a work-life balance.

6% 600

3% 300

0% 0

Men Women

Employed people who work overtime by sex (thousands of people and % of employed people, 2017)Source: Afi from the Active Population Survey (EPA, INE)

5.5%

448

270

3.6%

Thousands of people

(right axis)

% Total employed

people

Men and women have an equal desire to have the same amount of children, but in the end they have less than wan-ted or do not have them at all, pointing to problems of a balance between fa-mily life and work, among others. This produces a negative effect on the de-mographic evolution of the country, with the resulting consequences on generational balance. Even when it is a shared responsibility, women perceive that having children affects their careers more negatively than men: their employment rate is re-duced from the usual age of having the first child, plus it is they who generally take parental and family care leave. Once the leave comes to an end, 8.3% of these working women (about 7,000 people) gives up the labour market par-tially or completely every quarter. The opportunity cost for the Spanish economy of this total or partial exit from

the labour market by women amounts to 40 million hours not worked per year, or a loss of about 1.28 billion euros a year (0.12% of GDP in 2017). 46.2% of women who have children have completed higher education.If this same proportion were observedamong those who give up employment to undertake housework, the Spanish economy would also be bearing a cost of 136 million euros each year in ter-ms of unused investment in university (0.9% of the total university expendi-ture of the academic year 2014/2015).

8Executive report

05Potential of women’s talent

The opportunity cost of the total or partial exit of the labour market of 7,000 women every quarter, after having taken a leave from work for the care of children or relatives, amounts to 1.28 billion euros a year..

Distribution of work leave for child and family care by gender (%, 2017)

Source: Afi from the Spanish Ministry of Labour, Migration and Social Security

100%

50%

Men Women

7.7%

92.3%

16.3%

83.7%

Childcare Family care

More about us You can find more information about us by visiting www.closingap.com or our Twitter (@ClosinGap) and LinkedIn profiles.