Those who work in the social sector earn much less money. According to a recent study, the wage gap is also linked to high part-time rates and the high proportion of women doing social work.
According to a new study, employees in the social sector in Germany earn an average of 17 percent less than employees in other sectors. According to information from the dpa news agency, this emerges from the survey “Before the collapse? Employment in the social sector” by the Institute for Labor Market and Vocational Research (IAB) and the German Red Cross, which is being presented today.
“In addition to disadvantages in terms of working hours, there are still significant differences in average pay in the social sector compared to the rest of the economy,” says the study. Most social sector employees work in childcare and education, followed by geriatric care, health and nursing care and social work, social education and special education.
“Employees are valued less monetarily”
The unadjusted wage gap between the social sector and the other sectors has decreased in recent years, according to the study, citing comprehensive IAB data, including on the wages of all companies with employees in Germany. Nevertheless, the wage gap for full-time employees in 2021 was still 17 percent.
The researchers call this wage gap the “care pay gap”. “To put it bluntly, full-time jobs in the social sector are valued less monetarily than in other sectors,” say the study authors.
On the wage gap between men and women
What is particularly well known so far is the so-called gender pay gap, the wage gap between women and men. According to the Federal Statistical Office, women’s gross hourly wages remained 18 percent lower than men’s last year. In a long-term comparison, the unadjusted gender pay gap is decreasing, according to the statisticians. In 2006, the gender pay gap was still 23 percent. Since 2020 it has remained at 18 percent.
The statistics office explains almost two thirds of the wage gap with higher part-time rates among women and lower salaries in jobs typical of women. The gender pay gap adjusted for these factors is still around six percent of the gross hourly wage.
What is the social sector worth to us?
According to the IAB and DRK study, the wage difference in the “Care Pay Gap” would also be reduced by adjusting for additional factors. “It won’t dissolve completely.” Given the high proportion of women in social professions, the “care pay gap” can partly be explained by the wage gap between men and women.
The German Red Cross sees the need for politicians to provide more resources for the social sector. “In the end, it is political decisions and actors such as municipalities, health insurance companies, states and the federal government that play a decisive role,” said DRK department head Joß Steinke, co-author of the study, to the dpa. “The central question is: How much is the social sector of society worth? Or to put it another way: How much should it cost?”