Most Iranian breadwinners are working in the private sector, even though those engaged in the public sector work tend to earn more and are placed in higher income deciles.
However, households with private sector breadwinners were dispersed over the lower and middle income deciles, according to the latest report published by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare's Information and Statistics Center, using data from the fiscal 2016-17. They mainly belong to the third income decile–making up 38.2% of the population of the income category.
Households headed by those employed in the public sector make up 22.67% of the 10th decile (the highest share in the income category) and 21.47% of in the ninth. This is while they only account for 0.61% and 1.05% of the first and second deciles, in contrast to private workers' 28.54% and 24.26% respectively.
Employers are also in the midst, accounting for 3.2% of all income deciles and 10.46% of the highest one. In fact, their presence progressively ranges from 1.6% in the first decile to 4.7% in the ninth.
The self-employed and the unemployed make up 20% and 37.53% of all deciles, with their highest prevalence in the second and first deciles respectively.
As for the living costs of private sector-breadwinner households, most belong to the 165-195 million rial ($3,928-$4,642) per year range with a 35.49% of all households.
In terms of income, their highest prevalence is also in the same range as their living costs with 38.4%, according to the Statistical Center of Iran.
The Cooperatives Ministry's report does not elaborate on living costs or income details of public breadwinner-headed households.
Statistics indicate that there were a total of 12.42 million wage-earning workers in Iran during the fiscal year under review, 70% of whom operated in the private sector.
Out of the 8.7 million workers, 50.8% were engaged in the industrial sector, 40.9% in services and 8.3% in the agriculture sector.
Unskilled workers have the highest prevalence among private sector workers with 28.8%, followed by "industrial workers" with 23.3%, "machinery and equipment operators and assemblers" with 12.2%, "service workers and retailers" with 11.9%, "specialists" with 6.1%, "administrative staff" with 6.1%, "technicians and assistants" with 5.5%, "skilled workers, farmers, foresters and fishermen" with 2.1%, and "legislators, high-ranking officials and managers" with 1.9%.
Close to 43% of private sector breadwinners work 49 hours and more per week, 31.8% work between 41 and 48 hours, and only 25.3% work less than 40 hours.
