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Open data and the gender pay gap in Jalisco: Jalisco’s open government commitments

Laura Zamora|

As part of the Committee for Assessment and Monitoring of Labor Policies (CESPT in Spanish), we created the Government and Open Data Commission to support efforts around accountability. In line with the federal government’s efforts, the Commission identified seven principles to lay the foundations of access, publication and use of data: data must be open by design, timely and exhaustive, accessible and usable, comparable and interoperable, and the data must contribute to governance, citizen participation, inclusive development and innovation.

 

Our Subnational Action Plan was designed with these principles in mind. One of its commitments is to bridge the gender wage gap in Jalisco, in which two important topics converge: gender equality and open data as an expression of a new governance.

 

In 2016, the Gender Equality Commission of the CESPT carried out a study, and in January of this year, published the report “Gender wage gap assessment in Jalisco: an analysis of segregation by gender and by region, 2016” (Salarial, 2017). This report clearly outlines the research methodology, and the data is publicly available.  

 

Gender wage gap in Jalisco

 

This commitment seeks to influence senior business stakeholders and the productive sector in order to co-implement mechanisms to make progress toward bridging the wage gap. We are considering using an open data digital platform to highlight the results of implementing recommendations that the study outlined.

 

This commitment has raised the region’s expectations, so several permanent committees have been created to monitor its progress. Jalisco’s Human Rights Commission recently assessed progress made toward implementing labor equality mechanisms and published a report on July 4th. The government also created the Citizen Observatory of the State’s Mechanism for Women’s Rights Advocacy.

 

Our Subnational Action Plan sets out clear goals for this commitment this year:

  • Strengthen incentive mechanisms in the productive sector to promote adoption of labor equality using best practices and taking a gender perspective.
  • Design, spread and implement new criteria to apply in labor inspection processes.
  • Reinforce the business census and the local certification system

 

The call for certifications will be announced shortly, and businesses and municipal governments have access to the study to support their decision making and the process of adopting labor equality practices. This shows how the publication of social information can result in improvements and adoption of new approaches to bring transformative change to political, social and economic dimensions. Ultimately, this should be the main purpose of government open data.

 

The following are the main results of these two documents (wage gap and gender-sensitive inspection).

 

The gender wage gap study aimed to identify the relationship between people’s gender and their salary. Men represent 61.1% (2,169,474) of economically active population, while women represent 38.9% (1,381,221).

 

In Jalisco, gender wage gap is 19.1%. This gender discrimination needs to be eradicated from various sectors in order to achieve women’s economic autonomy.

 

“The next step is to identify measures, such as creating spaces for collective negotiation and active participation of women workers, which in many cases has led to better salaries and reducing labor inequality. Also, we need to increase the minimum wage to promote equality in sectors with the lowest salaries, where women tend to work. Finally, we need to implement regulations to promote shared responsibility of families by creating mechanisms such as paternity licenses, acknowledging both genders’ family duties, and collective corporate solutions to ensure that both genders have equal access to training, promotions, overtime, and other commitments that contribute to income.” (Salarial, 2017, p. 201).

 

The purpose is that companies that are currently not registered as egalitarian businesses, consider adopting better hiring patterns and practices to bring benefits, both to their companies and to society as a whole.  

 

This road we are on opens up new chapters. By leveraging multi-year monitoring efforts around government and open data, we must maintain a permanent agenda that fosters co-creation and collaboration around sound policies that are adopted by governments and societies.

 

References

 

Calderon, A. (15 de mayo de 2017). Open Data Charter. Obtenido de http://opendatacharter.net/

Diario Oficial de la Federación . (2013). DOF: 30/08/2013 PROGRAMA para un Gobierno Cercano y Moderno 2013-2018. México: DOF.

Gobierno Federal. (2013). Estrategia Digital Nacional. Gobierno Federal . Mexico: Gobierno Federal . Obtenido de http://www.gob.mx/mexicodigital/

Katelyn Rogers, M. R. (15 de mayo de 2017). Global Open Data Index. Obtenido de https://index.okfn.org/

Protocolo de inspeccion, c. p. (6 de enero de 2017). Obtenido de http://gobiernoabiertojalisco.org.mx/sites/default/files/compromisos/archivos/protocolo_de_inspeccion_con_perspectiva_de_genero.pdf

Salarial, D. d. (4 de febrero de 2017). Secretaría del Trabajo y Previsión Social . Obtenido de http://stps.jalisco.gob.mx/sites/stps.jalisco.gob.mx/files/brechas_salarial_mujeres_y_hombres_en_jalisco.pdf

SEPAF. (15 de mayo de 2017). Datos Jalisco. Obtenido de https://datos.jalisco.gob.mx/

Open Government Partnership. (2017). Acerca de OGP. Obtenido de https://www.opengovpartnership.org/about/about-ogp.

Secretariado Técnico Local de Gobierno Abierto de Jalisco. (30 de noviembre de 2016). Plan de Acción Local de Gobierno Abierto Jalisco 2016-2018. Obtenido de http://seplan.app.jalisco.gob.mx/files2/firmadigital/PLAN-DE-ACCION.pdf

IMCO. (2015). Justicia laboral, justicia transparente. Obtenido de http://imco.org.mx/politica_buen_gobierno/justicia-laboral-justicia-transparente/

 

 

Filed Under: Americas Challenges and Solutions Latin America Local Commitments National Perspective
Open Government Partnership