The Gender Pay Gap is Shrinking, Slowly but Surely

Between 2011 and 2022, the pay gap between men and women shrank by approximately 6%.

René Böheim
René Böheim

While the average wage for women remained 19.6 % below the wage level for men in 2011, it was "only" 13.5 % in 2022. These findings were presented in a study involving the JKU (Institute of Economics, René Böheim) which examined wages in both the public and private sectors.

analyzed the wage gap between 2011 and 2022 based on the microcensus." During this period, the adjusted wage gap also sank from 7.8% to 6.4%. The factors that determine the pay gap include differences between women and men in terms of characteristics describing professional experience, the occupation in question, as well as the industry or vertical segregation. The latter refers to the fact that despite a balanced male/female ratio, men and women are often at different hierarchical levels in a company. In essence, a convergence of wage levels can be attributed to equalizing these characteristics. According to the study, the proportion of unobserved features resulting in wage differences, such as systematic differences in wage negotiations and the systemic lower pay for women, also declined, although to a lesser degree.

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