How Covid-19 affected labor income in Serbia? An exploration of gender, education, the possibility to work from home, and the employment sector differences

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of Covid-19 on labor income changes of employees in Serbia. The research was conducted on a representative sample of 3,044 individuals using the CATI method in Serbia. Employees' labor income was recorded by collecting data on wages before and nine months after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. To obtain the difference, we calculated the percentage change in labor income. There was no significant gender difference in the percentage change of income, while there was a difference regarding education level. Employees with primary education experienced an average percentage increase in salary of 7.6%. The analysis revealed a significant interaction between gender and education, indicating that men with primary education had an average increase of 12.8%. Our results showed that employees who could not perform their job from home had an average percentage increase of 2.9% in labor income. The employment sector also had an effect on percentage changes in salary. The construction and agriculture, forestry, and fishery sectors had an average percentage labor income increase of 12.6% and 11.5%, respectively, while employees in the sector of other service activities experienced an average percentage decrease of 7.9%. In conclusion, this study sheds light on the diverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on labor income, emphasizing the importance of considering gender, education, remote work possibilities, and the employment sector.