Male workers in Malta above the age of 55 outnumber women by more than 20 per cent, giving rise to the greatest disparity between sexes at the workplace in the EU, an active ageing study has revealed.
The report also shows that Malta has the second lowest number of people still in employment in this age group, though Maltese women distinguish themselves as being the only ones in the EU who lead a more independent life than men.
These contrasting findings emerged from the 2014 active ageing report carried out by the European Commission in conjunction with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
The study analysed four different aspects linked to active ageing – employment in which Malta placed 26th, social participation where it placed in the middle bracket in 15th place, independent living (14th) and capacity to age actively (11th).
Each category was then analysed by gender from which a disparity in employment in favour of men was observed particularly in Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In 14 member states the gap was larger than 10 points, with Malta having the most pronounced difference at 22.9 points.
Malta’s combined overall score in this study placed it in eighteenth place in the so called active ageing index – a slight improvement when compared to a similar survey carried out in 2012 in which it had placed 19th.
While noting Malta’s abysmal performance in the employment index, Marvin Formosa, Gerontology Unit Co-ordinator at the Faculty for Social Wellbeing at University took solace from the fact that the National Employment Policy includes a number of recommendations which would be expected to bear fruit in the coming years.
This needs to be addressed through policies premised on the ‘carrot’ approach
As for the gender disparity among old workers, he said that the main reason for Malta’s low score was mostly due to the fact that many unskilled older women preferred to work in the informal and underground economy. Consequently they remained undetected in labour market surveys.
“This needs to be addressed through policies premised on the ‘carrot’ approach that give long-term benefits for older women workers to declare their income,” he said.
On the other hand the absence of a gender gap in the independent, healthy and secure living index in Malta was the result of many years of policies based on an equitable distribution of services between the sexes.
Commenting on Malta’s slight overall improvement Dr Formosa remarked that one possible reason could be the launch of the National Strategic Policy for Active Ageing in November 2013. He noted that efforts to implement some of its 75 recommendations had a positive impact.
A look at the overall standings reveals that Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark and Finland) are the top performers across the four domains of active ageing.
Greece and central eastern European countries (except Estonia and the Czech Republic) were at the low end of the table.