In Costa Rica the employment situation of women in recent years is truly alarming, since within the capitalist system it is working class women who bear the brunt; indeed, the wave of layoffs during the pandemic hurt them much more.
Today these data, although they have improved, continue to leave them in worse conditions. Despite the economic recovery in 2022, only 41% of all the women that make up the total workforce have managed to find a job.
For capitalist society, maintaining higher unemployment among women is essential to increase levels of exploitation. Those who get jobs are willing to receive less wages, while the rest must assume unpaid work in the families’ homes.
The data does not lie
According to data from the latest continuous employment survey, the general average salary in all categories in the country is 498,000 colones, but for women that average drops to 477,000. But this salary situation is even more violent against women. women born in another country, since their average salary in all categories is barely 296,000 colones.
In general, the wage inequality for women by sector is very wide. For example, in manufacturing, gross income for men is 490,000 on average, while for women it is 385,000; in the case of commerce and repair, men earn an average of 417,000 and for women it reaches 335,000.
It is clear that the capitalists use the oppression of women to pay less wages and extract more profit from their work. As is evident, by adding other oppressions, such as being foreign women, this exploitation is even greater.
Reduce hours and maintain wages
According to official data, there are currently 298,000 people without work, most of whom are women, and these people cannot get a job because the capitalist system itself does not generate more jobs, not because of bad luck or lack of desire on the part of those who suffer. Unemployment.
The working class must propose a fight to demand that the capitalists reduce the working day to 40 hours a week and maintaining the same salary, that is the best way in which we can open more spaces in the companies so that all people can work.