First, in many branches and in many jobs, women are paid less than men for the same work. This is often particularly true in jobs that are traditionally held by men or that still have mostly male workers, like STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) jobs. This gap varies in size by country and by job in those industries.
Second, there is an overall gender pay gap because male and female workers often do different jobs and work a different number of hours for pay. If we compare the wages and earnings of all men and women, there is a large pay gap, and in many countries, at least half of it is explained by these two factors.
The fact that we know why the gap exists does not mean that the gap is not real. This is a very common misunderstanding. Some people believe that because we know that differences in job choice and hours worked explains part of the gap means that individual women can make different choices and therefore not suffer from the gender pay gap.
This might be true for some women, in some countries, some of the time. Taking a holistic perspective, it’s important to remember that there are structural reasons why women do less paid work and why they take different jobs, on average, than men. Social pressure is very high for women to do the large bulk of unpaid work, like taking care of children, the elderly, and the household. Gender norms are also sticky and make it very uncomfortable for women to take “men’s jobs” – and for men to do “women’s jobs.” Many “women’s jobs,” like teacher and nurse, are poorly paid with very difficult conditions, despite their importance for society – so there is not much incentive for men to take those jobs. Another important aspect is that women tend to display greater reservation regarding the negotiation of their salaries, which frequently leads to lower compensation.
Very often, even official statistics publish different numbers for the gender pay gap, even within one country or state and one year. This result comes from the fact that there are different ways to calculate a gender pay gap! In the video below I explain how this works. As an example: the gender pay gap in Austria has been reported as 12%, 18%, and as 44%. Spoiler alert: these numbers are all correct!
In this video, I explain in more detail the different ways of understanding gender pay gaps. I give explanations for why – no matter how we calculate it – it is always there. Perhaps more importantly, I give a vision for the future that may get us closer to an economy without structural gender-specific pay gaps.