This paper presents women's economic participation as self-employed individuals and professionals from 2018 to 2020. It also provides insights into the gender gaps between men and women regarding their earnings and tax contributions.
By labor force participation, men have higher participation in the total labor force, contributing about 62%, compared to 32% for women. This resulted in a gender gap of about 23% in the total labor force. By sector, male self-employed and professionals (SEPs) dominated the sectors of fishing, mining and quarrying, manufacturing, construction, transport, storage, and communications, and public administration and defense. On the other hand, female SEPs dominated the agriculture, hunting, and forestry, electricity, gas, and water supply, wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, hotels and restaurants, financial intermediation, real estate, renting, and business activities, education, and health and social work sectors.
In terms of earnings, the gender gap in the number of SEPs increases as the net taxable income increases. Likewise, the income gap between male and female SEPs widened as the net taxable income increased, which means that female SEPs contributed fewer taxes than male SEPs during the period covered. It was observed, however, that female SEPs exhibited higher tax compliance rates compared to their male counterparts. With the growing number of female SEPs, interventions are needed to increase their income as an essential step to narrow and/or bridge the gender gap in terms of earnings between male and female SEPs. As a result, increased earnings among female SEPs will redound to higher tax revenues for the government.