Gender Budget Target in Active Labour Market Policy: Minimum 50 percent of Funding for Women

For several years now, the Austrian Minister of Labour Affairs has called for allocating to women's schemes half the budget available for active labour market policies. First stated in 2004, the goal was achieved only between 2005 and 2007 even though women have more frequent access to a given policy measure than men. But on average the funding dedicated to promotion schemes for women is less than that for men. In order to increase women's share to 50 percent of the funding, it is necessary to counter structurally lower costs, which is done by a number of strategies varying between the public employment service points at state level. Important tools include supportive schemes for women (re-entry, crafts and engineering) – programmes which are financially secured by the Minister's target.