OECD Taxation Working Papers N. 29: THE IMPACT OF TAX AND BENEFIT SYSTEMS ON THE WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION INCENTIVES OF WOMEN. This paper examines the impact of tax and benefit systems on the incentives for second earners to enter formal employment. The paper highlights how various tax design features create greater participation disincentives for second earners than for primary earners or single individuals. As second earners in OECD countries are more often women, these greater disincentives create significant gender-equity concerns. As second earners are also typically highly responsive to work disincentives, these features are likely to negatively impact economic growth. These disincentives stem from a range of policies including the choice of family-based rather than individual-based taxation, the use of dependent spouse tax credits and allowances, and the use of tax credits and benefits based on family rather than individual income. Reform options to address these issues will depend on countries’ existing tax policy design choices. For countries where individual-based taxation is combined with some family-based provisions, reform of these familybased provisions to lessen their impact on second earner work disincentives may be warranted. For countries with family-based tax systems, the introduction of some individual-based provisions could be considered to mitigate the negative effects of family-based taxation on second earner work incentives.Tax and benefit systems can affect men and women differently. Explicit gender biases – where tax and benefit provisions are legally linked to gender – are increasingly rare across OECD countries. However, implicit biases – where tax and benefit systems interact with gender differences in patterns of behaviour and income – remain common. Perhaps the most common implicit gender bias in tax and benefit systems is the greater disincentive often created by tax provisions for second earners – who tend to be women – to participate in the workforce as compared to primary earners or single individuals. This paper examines how tax provisions can exacerbate these disincentives; quantifies the total disincentives created by the tax and benefit systems; and discusses potential tax policy reform options. While tax and benefit systems will also have an impact on the number of hours a second earner works once in employment, and on the mix of hours worked by partners in a family, the focus of this paper is solely on the decision whether or not to enter employment. Concern regarding the impact of tax and benefit systems on second earner work incentives is not limited to gender equity. There are also significant implications for efficiency, income inequality and inclusive growth. Empirical evidence shows that second earners tend to be highly responsive to work disincentives (OECD, 2011), and hence the imposition of substantial disincentives is likely to result in significantly lower participation by second earners than would otherwise occur. This is evidenced by the comparatively lower participation rates of women than men. Reducing disincentives can not only lower these distortions to economic behaviour, but will have a significant positive impact on GDP growth. Increasing second earner participation is also linked to lower income inequality (OECD, 2015) and lower child poverty (Del Boca, 2015). It will also be crucial in helping to address the demographic challenges associated with population aging in most countries. The paper first focuses solely on the tax system. While all income taxes can be expected to discourage work2 , the specific design of an income tax system can affect the exact incentives workers face. (…) Alastair Thomas, Pierce O’Reilly.
Thomas, A. and P. O’Reilly (2016), “The Impact of Tax and Benefit Systems on the Workforce Participation Incentives of Women”, OECD Taxation Working Papers, No. 29, OECD
Publishing, Paris.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/d950acfc-en