Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 23 Issue 3

b) Female Source: PNAD data. Figure 2: Employment composition by occupation, Brazil, 1985-2015 Thus, it is possible to say that there was replacement for men in manual and routine activities, especially from agriculture to production and operations. Women, in their turn, suffered reduction from routine and manual activities as agriculture to more abstract activities, as professional and technical ones, and non- routine, as basic services. There results emphasize higher occupational polarization among women then for men, as observed on North American labor market by Cerina, Moro and Rendall (2017). Hence, parallel to urbanization process and technological changes during past decades in the country, employment replacement from agricultural occupations to urban activities was evident as women were employed at jobs considered more feminine and men were employed at jobs considered more masculine 5 . Wage changes that happened simultaneously to this employment replacement on Brazilian labor market, with more qualified individuals and more participation from women are analyzes on the following section. V. C hanges in the W ages D istribution During the three decades studied, besides employment changes on Brazilian labor market, there were also changes at wage distribution, as seen on Table 2. There was an increase in average wage and reduction of inequality when considered Gini, from 0.567 to 0.416, and Theil, from 0.650 to 0.376, indexes. The biggest positive variation on average wage between 2005 and 2015 can be explained by the adoption of a minimum wage policy valorization in the country, based on inflation from the previous year plus the variation of economy growth from previous years, in addition to increase of formalization, as discussed by Neri (2018) and Paiva (2016). On the other hand, inequality reduction was intense during the final period as well as on the previous one, from 1995 to 2005, due to economic stability from “Plano Real” from 1994. This plan has managed to stabilize prices, which affects more those with lower wages, who have less access to the financial market to protect themselves against inflation, contributing to reduce inequality. Table 2: Descriptive statistics of hourly wage, 1985-2015 Variable 1985 1995 2005 2015 1985-2015 Mean 7.243 7.619 6.988 9.734 34.39 Gini 0.567 0.540 0.477 0.416 -26.63 Theil 0.650 0.587 0.476 0.376 -42.15 p10 1.294 1.680 2.069 3.997 208.89 p25 2.301 2.185 2.955 4.667 102.82 p50 3.596 4.214 4.231 6.417 78.45 p75 7.192 7.867 6.896 9.917 37.89 p90 15.534 15.891 13.446 17.500 12.66 p95 25.873 25.128 20.687 26.250 1.46 p99 60.410 59.872 51.717 58.753 -2.74 Source: PNAD data. © 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue III Version I 16 Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 ( )E Occupational Polarization in Brazilian Labor Market, 1985-2015 5 According to information from Demographic census from 1970, 1980, 1991, 2000 and 2010, urbanization rate in the country was, respectively, 55.9%, 67.6%, 75.6%, 81.2% and 84.4%.