Gender pay gap drops, but not for the right reasons: ILO

The gap between women’s and men’s pay has declined over the crisis years in most countries, but not always for the right reasons, according to the ILO’s Global Wage Report 2012/13.

“In some cases, this is because men’s situation in the labour market has deteriorated while women’s situation has improved or stayed the same,” said Kristen Sobeck, one of the coauthors of the ILO’s Global Wage Report 2012/13.

In Estonia, for example, changes in the gender pay gap are usually cyclical, increasing in times of growth and decreasing during recessions.

Men worked in sectors that were hardest hit by the crisis and also worked fewer hours, which helped to narrow the pay gap.

In some Middle Eastern countries few women are employed and those who do earn more than men.

In Syria, for example, only about 13 per cent of women were economically active in 2010 before the civil war, but 74 per cent of them worked in the public sector, where wages were about 1.5 times higher than in the private sector.

There are major differences across the globe when it comes to how much men and women are paid. Statistics sometimes vary depending on whether all full-time, or part-time employees are considered.

In Norway, the gap in hourly wages is lowest for part-time work. This means that men and women who work parttime have similar pay. But men earn considerably more than women in fulltime employment. The gender pay gap is even higher when all employees are taken into account, because a larger proportion of women work part-time, where hourly pay is lower than for fulltime work.