A new report published by the OECD criticizes the government's policy of increasing budgets for Haredi educational institutions – a policy that, according to the OECD, does not support the integration of this population into the labor market.
The report, titled OECD Going for Growth published Tuesday, incorporates new policy recommendations designed to encourage growth in each of the organization's countries, including Israel. The chapter devoted to Israel presents a less flattering picture: "The socioeconomic gaps between population strata remain large, and the duality in the business sector contributes to large inequality in the labor market."
Gafni on OECD report: "The non-Jew doesn't understand this" // None
The report's authors also wrote that "certain groups, mainly Haredim and Arabs, are underrepresented in the thriving high-tech sector, and are characterized by low employment rates, working hours, and wages." In this context, we should mention the budgetary additions to the Haredi sector that are approved weekly by the Finance Committee, with a significant portion of these sums going to support Haredi educational institutions where core curriculum is not taught, making it difficult for their students to integrate into the employment market in the future.
"The share of working poor is high," OECD economists write, recommending abolishing government subsidies for yeshiva students and making subsidies for daycare centers conditional on fathers leaving for work, that is, subsidizing daycare centers only when fathers are working.
OECD headquarters in Paris, photo: AP
The OECD further recommends increasing state investment in education and childcare budgets in the Arab Israeli sector, with the goal of comparing them to the budgets of schools with a similar socioeconomic profile in the general sector.
In this context, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has delayed transfers of funds intended for the Arab sector. Funds earmarked, inter alia, for development and education in Arab localities, in order to prevent the leakage of funds to terrorism and criminal organizations.
The organization's economists recommend that the government permanently reinstate negative income tax grants given to families with two working parents in order to encourage people to go to work.
Regarding gender equality, the findings of the report paint a bleak picture in Israel, according to which Israel ranks second in the world in wage gaps between men and women in the labor market. According to the report, in 2019, the wage gap between men and women stood at more than 24% on average, with only South Korea having higher wage gaps. The OECD further recommends that the Israeli government lower import barriers in order to lower the cost of living.
Gafni responds: "Israel's hand in the matter"
Finance Committee Chairman MK Moshe Gafni said in response to the report: "I invite those who prepared this Pashkeville for a confrontation, and I will tell him how the people of Israel, with thousands of years of exile, held the entire world with holocausts and troubles, and came to the Land of Israel thanks to Torah learners, the non-Jew does not understand this! Why did he say that, because Israel's hand is in it, someone from here made sure he said it. We'll deal with that, too."
MK Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism), in response to the OECD report: "The integration of the ultra-Orthodox sector into employment and academia is necessary and critical, both for the Israeli economy and for the welfare of Haredi society. Alongside the importance of Torah study, we must incentivize those who seek to change and integrate into the employment market."
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