Women in Germany still earn less than men: for every euro that a man received in wages last year, a woman received only 82 cents. The so-called Gender pay gap is 18 percent, shows a new evaluation by the Federal Statistical Office. On average, men received a gross hourly wage of EUR 24.36, while women only received EUR 20.50. At least the difference is getting smaller: At the beginning of the survey, in 2006, the gender pay gap was still 23 percent.
Compared to the other EU countries, however, Germany continues to be one of the tail lights. Only Latvia (22 percent), Estonia (21 percent) and Austria (19 percent) have a larger gender pay gap. Luxembourg (1 percent), Romania (2 percent) and Slovenia (3 percent) have almost closed the pay gap between women and men.
According to the statisticians, almost two-thirds of the salary difference in Germany is due to the fact that women are more likely to have lower-paid jobs and work part-time more often. Adjusted for these factors, the gender pay gap is seven percent. Even in comparable jobs and with similar qualifications and employment histories, women earn significantly less than men. According to the Federal Statistical Office, interruptions in working life, for example due to pregnancy or caring for relatives, are not included in the survey. Therefore, the adjusted gender pay gap should be “understood as the upper limit for merit discrimination”.
The federal government wants to reduce the gender pay gap to ten percent by 2030
The study also shows that the gender pay gap is significantly smaller in the east than in the west. There, a woman gets 93 cents for every euro a man earns – in the west it’s only 81 cents. And if you look at the mean income, i.e. the level of income from which the number of people with lower salaries is the same as the number of people with higher salaries, the wage difference in the East is even completely reversed: East German women have an average monthly gross income of 3060 euros – and thus receive 82 euros more than East German men, who earn an average of 2978 euros. This is the result of figures from the Federal Employment Agency from June 2022. Gender pay gap in a different way.
There are historical reasons why the East is significantly further here than the West. From the end of the 1960s, the dual supplier model gradually became established in what was then the GDR. Both partners mostly worked continuously and full-time, interruptions for childcare became shorter and shorter for the women over the years. Even today, it is much more natural there than in the West for women to work full-time, says Michaela Fuchs from the Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research. “Women are seen as more equal in the East – on the labor market and in companies. And they are not punished as much for having children on the labor market as women in West Germany.” Daycare places are also more available and all-day schools are better developed.
An important reason for the smaller gender pay gap, says Fuchs, is “that men in the east don’t have the job opportunities that men in the east have. They earn significantly less in classic male jobs in mechanical engineering and in industry.” In the “classic women’s jobs”, in the service industry and in the health sector, the east-west divide is not that great. The new federal states are also way ahead of the old ones when it comes to mini-jobs: a good 17 percent of working women in the west have a 520-euro job, in the east only one in ten women has a mini-job. This is shown by a study by the union-affiliated Hans Böckler Foundation from 2018.
By the way, the federal government wants to reduce the gender pay gap to ten percent by 2030. Until then, there is still a lot to be done – especially in the west.