1. Care Workers in Argentina: Preschool Teachers and Domestic Workers Valeria Esquivel IAFFE 18 th Annual Conference Simmons College, Boston, 27 th June, 2009 Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento

2. Women and men in the Argentinean labour market, 2006. Graph 1 Source: EPH, Country total.

3. Women and men in the labour market. Urban totals, 2006 Graph 2Graph 3 Source: EPH, Country total.

4. Two polar types of care workers Domestic workers Households as employers; Special working status; Hardly registered (9% in 2006, probably a third of them in 2008). High turnover. Pre-school teachers Schools/kindergartens, most of them in the Public Sector; Highly regulated profession; Almost all registered; Job-stability and high levels of seniority. Working conditions

5. Two polar types of care workers Domestic workers Low educational levels and middle-aged; One third live in poor households. 20% lower than indicative wage, which is lower than economy wide minimum wages Pre-school teachers Younger and more qualified than female wage workers; Parents more educated than average. “Seniority pay” Wages higher than median wages for women Socio demographic charac- teristics Wages

6. What does this comparison say about care workers in Argentina? Care workers are not a homogeneous group. There face highly heterogeneous working conditions, socioeconomic strata and wages; Highly feminized occupations; Wage gaps driven by the conditions that are behind high informality in wage work and by being a female wage worker, not by a care penalty in itself. Specific wage penalties are found associated to work in the “domestic sector” both for (the very few) men and women workers that belong to it.