Joanna Sobierska‑Paczesny

Gender Wage Gap 101

by Jill Sanders

This week I’ve decided to interview a few economics students at our university to find out a bit more about the situation on the job market that we women will be facing as soon as we graduate. Though I’m sure many of us are already in it, if you’re supplementingsupplementing [supplement]supplementing your scholarship or parents’ budget with a few euros earned on your own. As we’re sitting around the table in our favourite coffee place, my interviewees start by telling me that what I’m about to learn won’t be pretty.

Monica: Everyone’s talking about waves of feminism and emancipationemancipationemancipation, but when we look at the job market, there’s one thing that screams “we’re not there yet!”, and that’s the gender wage gapgender wage gapgender wage gap. It’s there, even in the most developeddevelopeddeveloped and liberal countries and, unfortunately, for the time being it’s not going away.

Brie: No, it’s not. We’ve got our plans and ambitions but financially, you have to factor that infactor that infactor that in – you’re going to be making less than a man in your position.

Jill Sanders: Wait, what? That’s so last century. Can they still do that?

Brie: Oh, come on. The glass ceilingglass ceilingglass ceiling is still going stronggoing strong [go strong]going strong. This mental barrier that stops women from seeking high‑power jobs and men from giving the highest positions to women is still present in many professions. Why should you be surprised that we also make less money for the same jobs and qualifications? Pay transparencytransparencytransparency is still uncommonuncommonuncommon, so many people don’t realise that it’s going on in their companies.

Sammy: Funny you should mention last century. Do you know there are studies of pay inequitypay inequitypay inequity that go back many centuries? They found data showing that 700 years ago men used to make twice as much as women in Southern Europe. It wasn’t much better in the north, and it went on like that till the 19th century.

Monica: Yeah, but consider when women really went to work in great numbers – after the Second World War. You can’t talk about women in higher positions before the 70’s and 80’s and the waves of feminism. We made great progress then. Apparently, the wage gap went down to women making ‘only’ 30% less than men.

Jill Sanders: Wait, so it means that when a man got a dollar, a woman got 70 cents?

Sammy: Yep. And that was progress, mind you.

Brie: You can’t be so cynical, Sammy. Rome wasn’t built in a dayRome wasn’t built in a dayRome wasn’t built in a day. We have centuries of the ‘women are good for nothinggood for nothinggood for nothing’ mindset behind us.

Sammy: Some people are still back there. 

Sammy was ready to get all riled upriled up [rile up]riled up, but Brie looked at her sternlysternlysternly and cut her offcut her off [cut somebody off]cut her off.

Brie: Yes, but what I mean is that everything was changing. Women were starting to get better education, including professional training and university degrees. We were beginning to develop ambitions and looking for different jobs, but the job market was made up of men whose mentality had to change. It takes... well… generations. So the fact that the gap closed by halfclosed by half [close by half]closed by half over just three decades actually means it’s going well.

Jill Sanders: OK, I get that. But it’s been another 30 years down that roaddown that roaddown that road, so why is it still a problem? And how big of a problem, by the way?

This is where they all either laughed or looked at me with apologeticapologeticapologetic faces, then they all started talking at once, until Monica won the floorwon the floor [win the floor]won the floor.

Monica: I’m not even going to go into the ‘why’ because you can figure that out on your own. And no, Sammy, we’re not going there!

They all nodded, except for Sammy who really wanted to say something, but they hushed  her.

Monica: Anyway, the answer to the ‘how big’ question is rather complex. We’ve just spent two weeks of our classes talking about it, so explaining it in one hour is difficult but… OK, look at it like this. The easiest thing to do is to take the so‑called raw dataraw dataraw data, that’s all the wages and salaries of all men and women, and just compare them. You know, mathematically. How much does an averageaverageaverage woman make a week or a year compared to an average man.

Jill Sanders: OK, fair enough. And what will we get?

Brie: Both in the EU and in the US the wage gap is going to be a bit below 20%. That’s to say for every dollar or euro that a man makes, a woman makes a bit over 80 cents.

Monica: Yes, but it varies between countries, for instance in Luxemburg it’s over 98 cents, in Poland over 90, but in Estonia below 80.

Brie: Except raw data, like all general statistics, doesn’t show how it varies for different people. It’s much better to do the adjusted dataadjusted dataadjusted data, where you look at a particular social group. It might be white women with higher education, or women in a given company, or in a particular profession or region or area, e.g. a big city or a small town. Because the wage gap varies greatly between them.

Monica: That’s true and, unfortunately, it exists no matter how you slice the cakeno matter how you slice the cakeno matter how you slice the cake. It’s just sometimes the disparitydisparitydisparity is worse and sometimes it’s better.

Sammy: Can I say something now? Don’t worry, I’m not going to talk about male chauvinismchauvinismchauvinism. I don’t like that you want to dismissdismissdismiss the ‘why’ of it. There are many factors at play here and I think society should be made aware of them so that they can be counteracted. There’s a bias against women in certain professions, like STEMSTEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)STEM or business, and women empowermentwomen empowermentwomen empowerment could help them break it. There’s the fact that women generally choose to work different schedules and have different priorities than men. Another factor is that women are the ones who bear childrenbear children [bear children]bear children and still mostly the ones who take maternity leavematernity leavematernity leave, and then it all affects the jobs we choose and the kind and amount of job experience we gain. These are all very important reasons why the wage gap still exists.

They all nodded their heads at that point and it dawned on meit dawned on me [dawn on somebody]it dawned on me that we had only just covered the tip of the icebergit’s the tip of the icebergthe tip of the iceberg. For instance, I’d love to know if anyone is trying to implement measures against such unfair treatment. So, I suggested we meet the following week for another round of coffee, carrot cake, and explanations of the world of economics and women’s place in it. And I’m going to turn this into a series of articles.

1 Źródło: Joanna Sobierska‑Paczesny, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.