Status: 07.03.2023 12:14 p.m
Even in 2023, women in Germany will still be paid less than men. According to a survey, they have an average of 400 euros less per month at their disposal. Ultimately, this has consequences for everyone and, according to many politicians, cannot go on like this.
Today is the so-called Equal Pay Day – the day of the year until which women have had to work on average without pay since the beginning of the year and they would earn the same as their male colleagues from now until the end of the year. It is about the symbolic wage gap between men and women. For comparison: In 2009, Equal Pay Day was still on March 20th.
Because of this fact, Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil is pushing for more fair pay for men and women. “The wage difference between men and women is still 18 percent,” said the SPD politician in the joint morning magazine ARD and ZDF, citing information from the Federal Statistical Office.
Eleven percent went back to the choice of profession, among other things. “That means there is less pay in so-called classic women’s jobs,” Heil said. The different volume of work also plays a role: men tend to work full-time, women part-time. “The other seven percent actually go back to wage discrimination,” Heil continued.
Collective bargaining coverage and transparency in wages
The main thing now is to create more collective agreements. “Where there is a collective agreement, the wages are usually better,” said Heil. More transparency in wages is also important in order to avoid wage discrimination. “There are prominent examples in acting where actors earn more than actresses,” Heil said. “We can no longer afford that in the 21st century.”
The Pay Transparency Act created in the last legislative period is important. For example, it enables employees to request information about the payment of colleagues in comparable positions. However, this law only applies to companies with 200 or more employees. That should change in the future. Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) will present proposals.
Heil also announced that lawsuits against wage discrimination should be made easier. Trade unions and organizations should be able to sue on behalf of individuals because “one alone is often too weak to enforce his or her rights”.
Men can spend more than women
The wage differences also mean that women have less money overall. On average, it is 400 euros per month, according to a representative survey by the Association of German Banks. According to this, women can spend an average of 1,000 euros per month, while men can spend 1,400 euros, as reported by the newspapers of the Funke media group, citing the survey.
“Without financial independence, there is no freedom. Because without your own money, there is no scope to make decisions independently,” said Henriette Peucker, deputy general manager at the banking association, the Funke newspapers. “Against this background, the results of our study are particularly sobering.”
According to the banking association, just over a quarter of women save up to 100 euros a month, and a fifth of men. 28 percent of women save more than 200 euros and 38 percent of men. Women could therefore save less for old-age provision, it said. “71 percent of women think that they will have to make significant cuts when it comes to retirement, while only 55 percent of men think so,” Peucker continues. This situation is unacceptable.
Germany – a “tail light in Europe”
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig also pointed out the negative consequences for pensions and the risk of poverty in old age. She pointed out that when it comes to salary differences between women and men, Germany “still belongs to the bottom of the league in Europe” and therefore called for “equal wages for equal work of equal value for women and men”.
“Poverty in old age is often female,” said Green Party leader Katharina Dröge. “Because lower income and shorter periods of time in the job have a strong impact on pensions. This means that women only get about half the pension of men on average,” Dröge continued.
Together with her party colleague and Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus, Dröge is calling for a reform of the tax system in order to overcome poverty among women in old age. A gender-equitable tax system needs a reform of tax classes III and V. “Because this distributes the wage tax burden more fairly between spouses,” Paus told the newspapers of the Funke media group. Both politicians want to present measures to prevent poverty among women in old age with a five-point statement.