Resumo

In 2016, the United Nations (UN) established 17 sustainable development goals to be achieved by 2035, focusing on education, health, social protection, job opportunities, climate change, and environmental protection. Among these goals are gender equality (goal 5), decent work and economic growth (goal 8), and reducing inequalities (goal 10), which are interconnected and achievable through fair business practices. Credit unions, as cooperatives, adhere to principles such as "free and voluntary membership", promoting inclusivity without discrimination.

This study examines whether Brazilian credit unions provide fair salaries and employment opportunities without discrimination and it's compared with private financial institutions.

This agenda has been operationalized by the adherence to 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Halko et al., 2024) which cover the environmental, educational, economic and social areas. In Brazil, according to the United Nations (p. 1, 2024), there is SDG 5 Gender Equality, SDG 8 Decent work and economic growth, and SDG 10 Reducing Inequalities,. The International Cooperative Alliance has signed up to Agenda 2023, pledging to encourage cooperatives to incorporate the SDGs into their practices through the Coops for 2030 campaign.

The database used in this study was obtained from Relatório Anual de Informações Sociais (RAIS), which is maintained by the Ministry of Labor, and contains information about all Brazilian workers. The first step was filter it to include only credit union workers who were employed on 31 December each year from 2010 to 2022. It was necessary to select Legal Nature code equals 2143 (cooperatives) and the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE) 64 (financial activity). To analyze the private financial business, the Legal Nature was 2046, 2054 and 2062 (private institutions).

It’s important to observe that, in both, there is a gap in the mean salaries, which means that men earn more than women in every position. But the gap is bigger in financial private institutions and none seems to be being more equal as time goes by. Looking at the participation in the board, credit unions are more inclusive with women participation than financial private institutions.About the participation of black people, financial private institutions are also more inclusive, but in both cases, the participation is clearly growing in all job groups.

As a result, it was observed that despite moving towards an inclusive path through the hiring of minorities, the process is progressing slowly. Furthermore, hiring these individuals is not enough to ensure inclusion, it is also necessary for salaries to be commensurate with their positions. It was also noted that salaries are not trending towards adjustment and becoming more equitable.

Cardoso, J. S. M., & Lopes, I. S. (2021). Racial and gender diversity in communication of credit unions. Revista de Gestão e Organizações Cooperativas, 8(15), 01-27. Etgeto, A. A. et al. (2005). The principles of cooperativism and credit cooperatives in brazil. Maringá Management: Revista de Ciências Empresariais, 2(1), 7-19. Halko, A., Mantysalo, R. & Purkarthofer, E. (2024). Engaging the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 in strategic governance of “Europe’s most sustainable city”. International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 16(1), 1-16.