Employment Opportunity Indicator

Description

This indicator measures a country government’s commitment to ending slavery and forced labor, preventing employment discrimination, and protecting the rights of workers and people with disabilities.

Relationship to Growth & Poverty Reduction

This indicator encourages governments to invest in policies that drive economic growth and poverty reduction by supporting policies that ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to earn a fair wage in four areas: employment discrimination, disability rights, forced labor, and the ability of civil society organizations (CSOs) to start-up and shutdown.1 Broadly, employment discrimination increases poverty through denied employment and social exclusion, while equality of employment opportunities can drive economic growth and social inclusion.2 The inclusion of people with disabilities in the economy and employment opportunities is key to robust and inclusive economic growth.3 This is particular critical in developing countries, as people with disabilities make up a disproportionate share of the global poor and supporting the rights of these groups is a crucial component of poverty reduction.4 Forced labor impedes the ability of individuals to earn a fair wage and exacerbates poverty such as by keeping individuals in debt bondage, preventing them from being able to earn anything or ever become free.5 CSOs are included because they are instrumental in ensuring that de jure employment protections and other laws are enforced.6

Methodology

WORLD Policy Analysis Center Methodology

WORLD regularly reviews the laws and constitutions of countries to determine whether certain rights are protected.

Disability Rights: From WORLD’s disability dataset, MCC uses the following seven questions. These questions are coded as binary, where a legal right provides countries with one point, and anything less gives zero points. These questions are then averaged so that each country is given a sub-score for disability rights between 0 and 1 that represents the share of rights protected.

1. Does the constitution explicitly guarantee equality or non-discrimination for persons with disabilities? (“Guaranteed right” = 1, all else = 0)
2. Does the constitution explicitly require schools or educational institutions to be physically accessible? (“School accessibility explicitly guaranteed” = 1, all else = 0)
3. Does the constitution explicitly guarantee the right to work for adults with disabilities? (“Guaranteed right” or “Work rights generally guaranteed and disability discrimination prohibited” = 1, all else = 0)
4. Are employers required to guarantee reasonable accommodation to workers with disabilities? (“Yes” = 1, all else = 0)
5. Does the constitution explicitly require public places and/or public transportation to be physically accessible? (“Accessibility explicitly guaranteed in both public places and public transportation” or “Accessibility guaranteed in one area” = 1, all else = 0)
6. Is disability-based discrimination prohibited through the completion of secondary education? (“Discrimination broadly prohibited) = 1, all else = 0)
7. What is the guaranteed level of inclusion through the completion of secondary education for students with disabilities? (“Integration in mainstream schools and guaranteed support”, “Integration in mainstream schools”, and “Guaranteed, unclear level of integration” = 1, all else = 0)

Employment Discrimination: From the WORLD dataset on Employment Discrimination, MCC uses the following questions:

1. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on disability?
2. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on religion?
3. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on race/ethnicity?
4. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on gender identity?
5. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on political affiliation?
6. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on social class?
7. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on age?
8. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on marital status?
9. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on maternal status?
10. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on paternal status?
11. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on migrant status?
12. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on foreign national origin?
13. Is there at least some explicit legislative prohibition of workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation?

Each of these responses are coded into binary variables (1 for “yes” to any protection for each group in a question (UCLA codes a “5” in their data set as a “yes”) and 0 for “no” or if only some of the groups in question are protected) and then averaged (i.e. all of the 1’s are added together and then divided by 13). This means that the resulting employment discrimination sub-indicator is the percentage of protected classes that are covered by some explicit legal provision prohibiting discrimination against them in a given country.

V. The Varieties of Democracy Institute’s (V-Dem) data on Civil Society Organization Start-Up and Shutdown, and on the prevalence of forced labor for men and women. Questions regarding the Varieties of Democracy indicator may be directed to contact@v-dem.net.

V-Dem Methodology

V-dem surveys a wide range of experts annually, then aggregates their responses into a single score.

Forced Labor: The forced labor sub-indicator (v2xcl_slave) is an average of the prevalence of forced labor and involuntary servitude for men and women. V-Dem defines forced labor as follows: “Involuntary servitude occurs when an adult is unable to quit a job s/he desires to leave — not by reason of economic necessity but rather by reason of employer’s coercion. This includes labor camps but not work or service which forms part of normal civic obligations such as conscription or employment in command economies.”

Civil Society Organizations: The civil society organization start-up and shutdown data are from the V-dem data on CSO Entry and Exit (v2cseeorgs). This sub-indicator measures the extent to which the government achieves control over entry and exit by civil society organizations (CSOs) into public life. CSOs include, but are not limited to, interest groups, labor unions, spiritual organizations if they are engaged in civic or political activities, social movements, professional associations, charities, and other non-governmental organizations.

MCC Methodology

MCC’s Employment Opportunity Score = [ 0.25 × (Average Disability Rights) ] + [ 0.25 × (Average Employment Rights) ] + [ 0.25 × (Normalized Forced Labor) ] + [ 0.25 × (Normalized CSO Entry and Exit) ]

The Employment Opportunity indicator is calculated as an average of four sub-indicators: Disability Rights, Employment Rights, Forced Labor, and CSO Entry and Exit. First, each of these scores are normalized to a scale between 0 and 1, then the four components are averaged together. MCC uses one method to normalize the data for Disability Rights and Employment Rights and a second method to normalize the data for Forced Labor and CSO Entry and Exit. If any components are missing for a particular country the score is the average of the components that are not missing. If all components are missing the indicator is considered missing and a country will receive and N/A on the indicator. Score years are labeled based on the year of the V-Dem data used. For FY24 the scores are labeled as 2022.

The disability rights and employment rights sub-indicators are normalized by averaging the scores on each of the questions (i.e. the percentage of questions where rights are guaranteed in the law). So, if a country has protections for 11 of the 13 groups listed under disability rights, they will receive a score of approximately 0.846 on this component. (11 ÷ 13 ≈ 0.846; 11 is 84.6% of 13).

• Average Disability Rights = (Number of questions where there is a guaranteed right)/7
• Average Employment Rights = (Number of questions where there is an employment protection in law)/12

For example, if a country has a guaranteed constitutional right to non-discrimination for persons with disabilities, and a constitutionally guaranteed right to work for people with disabilities, but no other rights, they would have 2 out of 7 questions with a legal right. This means their score would be 2÷7 or 0.2857 on this component.

The V-Dem sub-indicators use a different method for normalization:

• Normalized Forced Labor = 1 – ((Maximum observed value – Country X’s raw score) ÷ (Maximum observed value -Minimum observed value))
• Normalized CSO Entry and Exit = 1 – ((Maximum observed value – Country X’s raw score) ÷ (Maximum observed value -Minimum observed value))

For example, to calculate a given country X’s score, MCC first finds the maximum and minimum value for that year across the entire sub-indicator. MCC then subtracts country X’s score from the maximum to get the numerator and subtracts the minimum from the maximum to get the denominator. MCC divides the numerator by the denominator to get the inverted normalized value. Next, MCC subtracts this quotient from 1, to get the normalized value for a country. This process is done for both forced labor and CSO entry and exit.

In FY23 MCC revised its methodology for this indicator shift from a focus on Business Start-Up to Employment Opportunity. As a result, the scores from FY23 are not comparable to scores from FY22 and earlier. For more information about this change, visit: www.mcc.gov/blog/entry/blog-101422-scorecard-indicator-employment.

Source

• UCLA’s WORLD Policy Analysis Center’s data on Disability Rights and Employment Discrimination (UCLA)

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• Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem)

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