WORLD Policy Analysis Center

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Care Care Care Care Care Preventing Workplace DiscriminationThe WORLD Policy Analysis Center reviewed original legislation and statutory protections extended to the private sector in labor codes, anti-discrimination legislation, equal opportunity legislation, and penal codes. Data is current as of January 2021 for variables focused on gender and sexual harassment, as of May 2018 for variables focused on disability, and as of August 2016 for 13 protected characteristics. Original, full-text, national-level legislation for all 193 United Nations member states was identified primarily using the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s NATLEX database. The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law and other supplemental sources were consulted to ensure all applicable legislation was reviewed. This data analysis has focused on national-level legislation; for countries that legislate at the sub-national level and have no federal policy in place, we coded based on the lowest level of protection set at the state or provincial level. This analysis captures legislative language that explicitly applies to private-sector workplaces, and excludes provisions that guarantee non-discrimination without specifying their applicability to work (such as protections which may apply to public spaces or educational institutions). In some countries, case law has extended the application of more general prohibitions to specific areas of work and to cover additional protected characteristics. However, systematic review of case law is outside of the scope of this analysis and rights extended through litigation are not reflected in these findings.For details on the variables included in this category, please see WORLD’s global maps on Labor.For more information about WORLD’s approach to building globally comparative databases on policies affecting human health, development, well-being, and equity, please visit our Methodology page.Paid Leave for CaregivingThe WORLD Policy Analysis Center reviewed original labor and social security legislation, complemented and verified by information on social security systems from each UN member state and global sources to collect information about adult labor policies. The following sources were used to gather information on this subject:

International Labour Organization (ILO)’s NATLEX database;

ILO’s Maternity Protection and Working Time databases;

World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law;

Official country websites;

Lexadin;

World Legal Information Institute;

The Social Security Programs Throughout the World database (SSPTW); and

Hard copies of relevant legislation at ILO’s headquarters in Geneva and McGill University's and Harvard University’s law libraries.

Additional information to fill in gaps from the abovementioned sources was drawn from the following:

International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research;

Benefit summaries and information available from the Mutual Information System on Social Protection (MISSOC) and the Mutual Information System on Social Protection of the Council of Europe (MISSCEO).

Initial data analysis has focused on national-level law and policy. In countries where labor policies are set at the state or provincial level, such as the U.S. and India, we coded based on the lowest level of guarantee.