The Global Financial Inclusion Index Key themes Examining employer support by sector

Examining employer support by sector

The overall Global Financial Inclusion Index is accompanied by two sector rankings, tracking how employer support of financial inclusion shows up across different industries in surveyed markets.
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Full analysis

The overall Global Financial Inclusion Index is accompanied by two sector rankings, tracking how employer support of financial inclusion shows up across different industries in surveyed markets. These sectors are: 1) services industries, and 2) production and construction industries, with the latter being combined to accommodate for sample sizes.

The employer support pillar scores are derived from survey data based on polling businesses in each market (management-level employees). The services and production and construction indices target a respondent base of 50 businesses per market, but due to the nature of each discrete economy, this was not possible in all cases. We included all economies with survey sample sizes of more than 20 businesses to allow for the least attrition and robust comparisons on a global scale. Markets with sample sizes of less than 30 (**)1 businesses and between 30 (inclusive) and 50 businesses (*)2 are flagged.

Services sector index

The services index tracks the state of employer support in the services sector across the 42 markets analyzed, using the same indicators as the employer support pillar in the overall Index:

  • Provision of guidance and support around financial issues
  • Employee pension contributions
  • Employee insurance schemes
  • Employer pay initiatives

The business types surveyed are:

  • Retail trade
  • Finance and insurance
  • Information management
  • Education
  • Wholesale trade
  • Management consultancy
  • Health services
  • Real estate
  • Leisure and hospitality
  • Transportation
  • Personal services
  • Administrative services

Results overview

The services ranking is a subset of the employer support pillar. It’s no surprise the trend of emerging or frontier markets scoring higher than developed markets is evident in the services ranking, as it is in the overall employer support pillar.

The U.S. is the only high-income developed economy to feature in the top 10 for the services sector, just behind Vietnam in second, while seven of the markets in the bottom 10 are developed economies.

As in the overall Index, the U.S. services sector scores well for the employer pension contributions indicator, ranking first among all 42 markets in the sample.

  • Contributing to the market's high score is American service firms’ large pension/retirement contributions, which averages 9.7% of employee wages, second to only Chinese services firms’ (12.2%).
  • Close to two-thirds (63.2%) of U.S. service sector businesses’ contributions are above government-mandated levels, easily the highest share across all other markets’ service sectors.

Firms operating in the services sector in Asian markets tend to outperform their counterparts in the rest of the world—providing more support to aid in employees’ financial inclusion.

  • Nine out of the top 10 markets are in Asia, and all the Asian markets included in our sample rank in the top 20, with the exception of Singapore, Israel, Japan, and South Korea.
  • This result is especially pertinent given the fact that the four listed markets above are well-established economies, while the rest of the high-ranking Asian markets are emerging economies.
  • South Korea and Japan rank last in the services index, highlighting the divide between these markets and their Asian counterparts.

Asian services-focused companies offer a high degree of support to their workforces regarding common financial practices.

  • Excluding Hong Kong and Turkey, all Asian markets in the top 20 score well in the provision of guidance and support around financial issues indicator, with scores of at least 80.
  • The level of guidance offered to employees on financial matters appears to be broadly correlated with the generosity of company insurance schemes. The same set of Asian markets, except for the notable outliers of Vietnam (88.5) and China (53.1), achieve scores in the range of 65 to 80 for the employee insurance schemes indicator.

The following table provides Global Financial Inclusion Index employer support pillar—services sector.

Services Index

Rank Market Provision of guidance and support around financial issues Employee pension contributions Employer insurance schemes Employer pay initiatives Overall score
1 Vietnam 88.22 70.51 88.46 98.52 83.24
2 U.S. 85.10 86.20 67.52 75.11 80.02
3 India 93.33 77.10 69.07 75.92 78.50
4 Saudi Arabia 93.39 62.49 71.58 79.79 73.95
5 Malaysia 90.50 62.02 71.15 80.95 73.33
6 Thailand 90.43 56.58 79.92 79.21 72.54
7 Hong Kong 72.20 61.59 75.45 75.96 69.36
8 China 82.73 80.63 53.08 48.52 69.12
9 UAE 85.52 54.75 72.04 65.87 66.59
10 Turkey 72.82 60.36 69.51 63.07 65.23
11 Indonesia 81.67 46.21 66.57 73.02 62.73
12 Taiwan 77.73 47.24 73.31 67.90 62.68
13 Norway* 76.06 65.63 55.95 48.10 62.27
14 Finland 74.06 55.56 62.69 53.46 60.27
15 Switzerland 63.88 57.31 64.87 49.76 58.63
16 Poland 71.28 41.33 71.99 66.68 58.52
17 Peru 63.45 61.63 42.53 57.56 57.36
18 Denmark 83.50 39.14 63.15 57.37 56.46
19 Nigeria 78.14 45.14 48.48 65.03 56.38
20 Brazil 66.10 48.93 57.96 56.06 55.60
21 Singapore 56.93 64.56 47.70 43.62 55.47
22 Sweden 62.63 49.46 56.85 40.47 51.77
23 Chile** 48.79 52.68 52.71 42.44 49.86
24 Israel 57.81 39.56 53.14 58.46 49.71
25 Italy 61.52 40.39 47.96 48.36 47.72
26 Netherlands 54.38 44.44 50.75 40.77 46.96
27 Colombia 42.79 28.76 40.77 69.13 42.04
28 Argentina 27.81 44.73 50.55 41.77 41.92
29 Mexico 42.53 32.91 43.55 54.71 41.32
30 France 44.19 36.31 48.13 39.73 40.94
31 Kenya 63.58 20.79 32.99 65.91 40.81
32 Germany 35.74 45.83 33.00 37.88 39.65
33 Canada 7.26 42.26 48.29 47.55 37.53
34 Spain 36.60 28.53 51.94 39.68 37.06
35 Ghana* 36.36 34.43 30.43 49.59 37.05
36 Australia 21.14 54.18 28.11 18.57 35.24
37 South Africa 46.04 17.03 45.56 46.73 34.48
38 Ireland 23.50 31.78 26.41 16.22 25.94
39 New Zealand 24.79 30.81 16.34 20.81 24.71
40 U.K. 0.00 46.23 4.64 17.14 22.85
41 South Korea 2.94 24.82 27.09 13.42 18.62
42 Japan 10.13 21.05 20.39 20.30 18.58

 

The business types surveyed which are classed as production and construction are:

  • Manufacturing
  • Agriculture
  • Utilities
  • Mining and forestry Scientific/technical services
  • Construction

Results overview

Similar to the services index, Asian markets score well for employer support in the production and construction sector. With the exception of Japan and South Korea, all other Asian markets with sufficiently large sample sizes ranked in the top 20. As with the services index, Vietnam leads the table.

Singapore, the top-ranked market in our overall Index, places fourth in the production and construction ranking—a stark contrast to its 21st place in the services ranking.

Once again, Asian markets in the top 20 performed comparatively better in the provision of guidance and support around financial issues indicator, with scores in the range of 65 to 100, compared to the other economies outside of Asia in the top 20, where the corresponding range stands at 30 to 81.

For this Index in particular, five markets that featured in the overall Index are absent (Chile, Norway, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Ghana), indicating that that the sample sizes for the respective markets were less than 20. There are also 17 markets with sample sizes between 20 and 50, and these have been flagged accordingly.

The following table provides Global Financial Inclusion Index employer support pillar—production and construction sector.

Production and Construction Index

Rank Market Provision of guidance and support around financial issues Employee pension Contributions Employer insurance schemes Employer pay initiatives Overall score
1 Vietnam 93.77 84.48 82.20 94.24 87.83
2 India* 98.04 82.32 77.73 77.32 83.55
3 U.S. 80.12 78.81 84.04 74.34 79.22
4 Singapore 67.62 79.90 63.81 51.65 68.58
5 Malaysia* 68.60 64.12 78.28 66.79 68.38
6 Finland* 78.75 64.40 78.17 51.45 67.43
7 China 82.38 77.87 52.78 45.78 67.34
8 Peru* 74.53 68.71 57.28 66.34 67.11
9 Turkey 75.79 63.83 68.78 55.07 65.46
10 Thailand 87.37 45.50 78.72 61.55 63.73
11 Israel* 77.60 52.42 68.86 65.13 63.29
12 Saudi Arabia* 84.68 56.21 49.72 68.15 62.99
13 Nigeria* 76.64 56.41 56.32 60.98 61.35
14 Indonesia** 86.77 45.72 63.13 64.67 61.20
15 Australia 52.85 64.23 59.57 60.22 60.22
16 Denmark* 77.71 56.62 52.77 56.37 60.02
17 Poland 63.10 44.46 68.28 65.35 57.13
18 Switzerland** 30.18 75.92 61.27 38.66 56.39
19 UAE* 66.45 48.28 56.16 60.66 55.96
20 Mexico 54.05 57.28 48.05 56.46 54.62
21 Argentina 43.00 49.25 63.51 58.96 52.79
22 Brazil* 55.70 45.25 50.97 66.52 52.74
23 Netherlands* 67.63 43.34 50.85 39.63 48.96
24 Sweden* 45.04 44.56 64.72 41.71 48.12
25 Germany** 48.50 49.29 33.64 32.95 42.74
26 France 32.26 47.16 34.72 48.79 42.02
27 South Africa 39.37 37.05 41.32 55.25 42.01
28 Spain 35.66 43.50 41.69 43.48 41.57
29 Colombia 40.83 30.40 37.10 68.08 41.36
30 Kenya 62.88 20.42 36.48 61.88 40.42
31 Italy* 34.46 37.13 33.08 44.23 37.21
32 Ireland* 25.77 41.55 29.35 11.35 29.91
33 Canada 21.55 26.92 51.53 22.55 29.89
34 U.K. 16.89 44.12 15.65 17.81 27.72
35 South Korea 14.46 39.39 22.30 17.88 26.69
36 Japan 7.71 19.33 26.57 20.70 18.73
37 New Zealand 4.73 26.09 7.54 4.57 13.81

 

Employer support within global industries

As mentioned above, on a per market basis, low sample sizes of businesses mean that employers have been segmented into services or production and construction sectors. However, sample sizes globally are large enough to allow for a more granular industry breakdown across a range of sectors.

The industry-by-industry ranking tracks the state of employer support across each industry globally, using the same indicators as the employer support pillar in the overall Index:

  • Provision of guidance and support around financial issues
  • Employee pension contributions
  • Employee insurance schemes
  • Employer pay initiatives

Results overview

It’s hard to draw definitive conclusions around how well or poorly employers support financial inclusion on a global sector basis, as such initiatives and systems will differ significantly between markets. However, the analysis does reveal some notable trends.

Professional sectors with typically higher wages (finance and insurance, information management, management consultancy, administrative services, and real estate), reported providing employees with greater support and tools to enable financial inclusion compared with industries that tend to be lower wage and more likely to employ informal workers (education, agriculture, retail, leisure and hospitality, and personal services such as hairdressing, beauty, etc.).

Globally, more businesses perform better for their employee pension/retirement contributions compared to employee insurance scheme provisions, provision of guidance and support around financial issues, and employer pay initiatives.

However, some of the lowest scores in the global sector analysis are the employee pension contributions and employee insurance schemes indicators. For example, the personal services industry scores 16.32 on pension contributions and 11.5 on insurance provisions, and the leisure and hospitality industry scores 21.21 and 12.61 on the same metrics respectively.

This suggests that while pay initiatives clearly have a significant impact on financial inclusion, within certain sectors there is a notable lack of benefits and financial protection offered to employees, particularly within sectors that employ a high number of part-time staff

The following table provides Global Financial Inclusion Index employer support pillar—global sector.

Services Index

Sector Provision of guidance and support around financial issues Employee pension contributions Employer insurance schemes Employer pay initiatives Overall score
Finance and insurance 98.16 96.45 94.76 86.11 94.39
Information management 86.96 96.57 88.33 94.85 92.66
Management consultancy 76.99 68.95 73.85 59.23 69.60
Administrative services 71.81 64.47 75.08 70.44 69.25
Real estate 59.08 65.20 60.60 69.31 63.88
Manufacturing 51.54 66.28 65.90 64.12 62.82
Mining and forestry 79.48 50.23 53.05 35.16 53.63
Utilities 60.61 52.68 51.17 40.07 51.44
Wholesale trade 41.93 55.72 46.19 41.04 48.12
Health services 43.47 55.88 46.37 30.81 46.48
Transportation 41.98 53.32 46.23 25.30 44.03
Construction 35.89 39.90 50.46 45.90 42.41
Scientific/technical services 18.43 53.16 49.73 29.63 40.82
Education 41.35 47.72 26.35 18.26 36.28
Agriculture 43.06 23.70 23.69 38.18 30.46
Retail Trade 4.96 25.37 17.47 33.36 21.30
Leisure and hospitality 9.38 21.21 12.61 31.06 19.09
Personal services 20.21 16.32 11.50 28.60 18.59

 

To read more Index insights or the full report, see Data & Resources.

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Global Financial Inclusion Index

1 20 ≤ n < 30, where n is sample size
2 30 ≤ n < 50, where n is sample size

The Global Financial Inclusion Index is a proprietary model output based upon certain assumptions that may change, are not guaranteed, and should not be relied upon as a significant basis for an investment decision.

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