Pay per hour: Women earn 18 percent less

Status: 01/30/2023 12:37 p.m

According to the Federal Statistical Office, women in Germany earn almost a fifth less than men per hour. One reason: They often work in sectors or professions with lower pay. In the east, the differences are smaller than in the west.

On average, women in Germany continue to receive lower hourly wages than men. Last year they earned an average of 20.05 euros per hour and thus 4.31 euros or 18 percent less than men (24.36 euros), as the Federal Statistical Office announced today. In East Germany, the difference in earnings is currently seven percent, well below the 19 percent in the West.

Due to a changed methodology, the development cannot be compared directly with previous years. In a long-term comparison, however, the gender-specific wage gap (“gender pay gap”) has fallen: at the beginning of the survey in 2006, it was still 23 percent.

More women working part-time

According to the information, the differences are mainly due to the fact that women work more often than men in sectors, professions and requirement levels in which the remuneration is lower. “On the other hand, women work part-time more often, which is also associated with lower average gross hourly earnings,” according to the statisticians. These factors explained a total of 63 percent of the wage gap.

The remaining 37 percent of the earnings difference “cannot be explained by the characteristics available in the estimation model,” it said. Even with comparable qualifications, work and employment history, there is still a difference in earnings: this so-called adjusted “gender pay gap” is estimated at seven percent.

Notes on the new survey of earnings

– Until the 2021 reporting year, the results of the “Gender Pay Gap” were calculated on the basis of the four-yearly earnings structure survey (VSE), which was last carried out for the 2018 reporting year and subsequently updated. From the 2022 reporting year, the VSE was replaced by the new monthly earnings survey.

– Unless otherwise stated, dependent employment relationships of all economic sectors and company sizes are included in the calculation, with the exception of “Agriculture and forestry, fisheries”, “Public administration, defence; social security”, “Private households with domestic staff” and “Extraterritorial organizations and Corporations” and companies with fewer than ten employees.

“Cap” for merit discrimination

“However, it can be assumed that the differences would be smaller if more information about wage-relevant influencing factors were available for the analysis – such as information on career breaks due to pregnancy, the birth of children or caring for relatives,” according to the Federal Statistical Office. The adjusted “gender pay gap” is therefore “to be understood as an ‘upper limit’ for earnings discrimination”.

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