Men and Women in the Philippine Work Place : A Supply of Labor Analysis

This paper deals with the supply of male and female labor in Philippine industry. Using unit record data from the Philippine survey of manufactures of 2005, a supply equation in which labor by sex of workers is estimated with the wage rate used as the explanatory variable. The results confirm the finding of this author’s other study of labor supply that the supply of labor is within the zones of unlimited and abundant labor supply as described in that paper. The wage rate – whether it is the wage bill as size indicator for the firm or that of wage rates for either male or female labor – is not a significant explanatory variable. External and institutional conditions are more important in indicating the level of wages that firms accept when they hire labor in industry. In the few situations where the wage rate helps to explain the supply of labor, its influence is of negligible impact. For male labor, there is a (weak) indication that female labor is more complementary as a labor factor. Male labor receives a higher average rate of pay compared to that of women, but the supply of male labor appears to be more directly related to the female wage. As female wages rise even by the smallest change, so would the rise in the supply of male labor. In the case of female labor, the presence of male labor appears more like a (weak) competitive presence so that there is a negative rate associated with female labor. Firms within specific size groups hire labor according to their labor requirements but the wage rate is not a significant determinant. Specific industry that requires large numbers of workers for their operations such as those in export manufacturing and those that produce wage are partly but not substantially affected by variations in the wage rate. The study also points out those industry groups that tend to favor male or female workers in their workforce.