Publication

Exploring Gender Disparities in Sick Leave in Norway

Forfattere: Johnsen, Karen Haugseth

Publisert: 2025

Sammendrag: The Norwegian welfare state payments to sick leave alone was NOK 49.19 billion in 2021(NAV, 2021). This accounted for over 1,5 percent of non-oil GDP in Norway (Statistisk sentralbyrå. 2022). It is essential to understand what drives sick leave for men and women in order to implement relative policy measures to lower these costs. In this thesis I present a descriptive analysis on the developments in sick leave for men and women in Norway in the period 2015-2021. I analyze the gender gap in sickness absence using individual-year data and a Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition. The gap is stable at roughly 3 pp each year. Most of it lies in the unexplained component; observable differences in age, education, children, and occupation account for only a small share. The explained share increases in 2020–2021, coinciding with the pandemic, but the unexplained component still dominates. These results indicate that time-varying or unobserved factors, rather than observed composition alone, largely drive the gender gap. The analysis is descriptive and does not claim causal effects.

Prosjekt: 1679 Labor market inclusion and labor productivity (INPROD)

Referanse: Johnsen, Karen Haugseth, 2025, «Exploring Gender Disparities in Sick Leave in Norway», Andre skrifter, Master’s thesis

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