Impact of Continuing Education on Stable Employment and Wages of Men and Women in Serbia

Abstract

This paper examines whether continuing education and training contribute to overall job security and to narrowing the gender wage gap, thereby mitigating the potential effects of employer discrimination. Data from the Serbian Survey on Income and Living Conditions are used, focusing on 2020 and estimating wage regressions. The main results show that participation in continuing education and training has a positive effect on wages and contributes to reducing the wage gap, especially for individuals who were previously unemployed and participated in some form of additional training. This paper contributes to the understanding of the importance of training and its impact on employment stability and workers' wages in the post-transition economy. The findings presented in this paper are advisory to both policy makers and management. In general, it can be stated that trained employees are better suited to work tasks and, especially if they are satisfied with the knowledge acquired in the company, contribute to a stable environment that makes it easier for them to meet the demands of competition. On the other hand, this implies the empirically confirmed assumption that competition may be negatively correlated with employer discrimination. However, employee participation in continuing education and training in Serbia is still below the optimal level.