US embassy cable - 04YEREVAN2326

UNCLAS YEREVAN 002326 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/CACEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, AM 
SUBJECT: GENDER AND SALARY DISCRIMINATION IN YEREVAN 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1. (SBU) According to a new survey, equally qualified 
men and women in Yerevan receive wildly disparate 
salaries:  on average, women in Yerevan receive 40 
percent less than men.  While the survey was too small 
to be entirely reliable, the trends it demonstrated are 
strongly supported by anecdotal evidence.  End Summary. 
 
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AEPLAC SURVEY RESULTS 
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2. (U) The Armenian-European Policy and Legal Advice 
Center (AEPLAC) together with the Armenian Sociological 
Center recently presented the results of a June survey 
on discrimination trends in the Yerevan labor market. 
The survey aimed to reveal whether such factors as 
gender, social status, place of residence and 
nationality play a role in determining the salary.  The 
survey results are based on limited salary data 
gathered from only 396 people.  The survey contacted 
1000 randomly selected respondents, of whom 599 
technically belonged to the work force, only 420 
respondents were actually employed.  Of those who were 
employed, 396 respondents agreed to share their salary 
information.  According to the survey results, while 
men in Yerevan receive an average salary of 368.4 
Armenian Drams (AMD) per hour (roughly USD 0.72), women 
receive only 236.0 AMD (roughly USD 0.45).  The average 
proportion of married men in the workforce (84.4 
percent of all surveyed men) is higher than that of 
women (67.7 percent of all surveyed women.)  In order 
to find the reasons for these differences the 
researchers processed the data through an econometrical 
model. 
 
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EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS MATTER 
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3. (U) AEPLAC found that each year of education and a 
strong knowledge of a foreign language increase the 
salary by 4.1 percent and 17.6 percent, respectively. 
Nonetheless, single women in Yerevan are paid 42.3 
percent less than single men, while married women are 
paid 46.9 percent less than married men.  AEPLAC cites 
this as an obvious example of gender discrimination. 
The location of jobs also influences salary:  people 
working in downtown Yerevan earn 63.5 percent higher 
salaries than those working in outlying suburbs. 
 
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"EXPERTS" IN DENIAL 
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4. (SBU) Gender experts and NGO representatives note 
that the situation with gender discrimination in 
Yerevan labor market was complex and varied by sectors; 
these same experts admit, however, that they had never 
considered salary discrepancies as discrimination, 
noting that they had focused their attention on the 
availability of jobs.  The current labor market is so 
small that professional qualification is the only major 
criteria, and gender is irrelevant, one of the local 
experts maintains.  This AEPLAC survey, however, 
demonstrates that gender discrimination exists and is a 
continuing problem in both the public and private 
sector. 
GODFREY