In all developed countries, women earn less than men in all job categories. In the EU, women managers are the worst off compared with men. For instance, sources from Eurostat show that the women managers in countries like the United Kingdom received only 2/3 from the wages of men managers even thought they have the same level of education and the same skills, another example is Sweden, where among the EU countries is the greatest equality, this proportion is only 80%. Researches show that the jobs, which are closest to be equal are in lower-paid non-manual jobs e.g. clerks, shop assistants etc. What is even more interesting is the fact that women in older age groups fall even further short of the average earnings of their male counterparts. On the other hand women in the age between 20 and 24 get almost 85-95% of the wage of men in the same age. In addition although women with a university degree may earn more than women with lower qualifications but they actually earn a smaller percentage of the equivalent male earnings. In conclusion there is an increasing trend of widened wage gap between more and less educated people, but this trend is even worse for men. Although men still earn better than women in all education categories but the trend for men with less than a secondary education is worse than for women with the same education level. If this trend continues, wage equality between poorly educated men and women in will become reality very soon. However, as in the EU, the wage gap between well-educated men and women has not narrowed. The well-educated women earnings represent only 65-70% of men earnings. So women, what should we do???
April 17, 2009
Global trends – inequality in wages men vs. women
Posted by blavacka under Global labour market[8] Comments
April 18, 2009 at 12:25 pm
i would say that it is still better than in the last centuries, but of course i personally don´t accept these conditions. even though women may be considered as some “threats” to companies when they decide to have babies and maybe that is one of the reasons companies want to somehow balance these “flaws” of a woman, women should be considered equal as they do their jobs equally to men. what should we do?
wait probably.. history is evolving. i have one question for everybody. these numbers and inequalities in salaries are compared between men and women in the same positions and the same education levels. is there a lot of cases when a women earns less even though is on higher educational level than man?
April 18, 2009 at 1:14 pm
thats just an evolution process I guess, should get better. and You can fight !!
But seriously, this is serious issue talked much in Brusel, too. I think stricter anti discrimination legislation should be imposed and then regularly controlled. Its just rooted in old managers or I dont know to explain it differently..
April 21, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Of course, it is true what bikulka wrote about “threats” to companies, e.g. when women are pregnant. But in my opinion this is no reason for lower wages for women. I am, as well as other women, studying equally hard and long like men; and many of us are on the same level of education (maybe higher) then men. Me, and i think everybody, want to study, because we want to earn a lot of money. So i did not see reason why women have lower wages.
And what to do?? Maybe i will found up a company and i will hire only women. Then i will have lower costs of wages.
April 30, 2009 at 10:38 am
I will definitely apply at your company before getting lost in despair as a female jobseeker with my degree:-)
I agree with you why should we earn lower although we go through the same ways with our studies. But the situation is getting more worse in today´s working world. Yet women consistently earn less than men with the same title as men. For me this is a kind of discrimination if a woman is paid less to do a job with the same title.
But what else should be done as women?
Feel obliged to fight individual battles to sustain our agendas?!!? I agree with zmajo.
I think the same applies for the attitude “being a threat problem for the companies”. It is true that the sad thing is: carees and children are not mutually exlcusive. It´s the “Can´t” attitude that is bothering me. But why “Can´t”. You can have both, if you want and try hard enough.
May 2, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I also think that lower wages for women is a discrimination which can not be justified. I think that we live in a modern world and that behaviours like that are antiquated. Germany is governed by a woman and the United States by a black person. I think the world is getting better…..nevertheless this process is not completed !!
May 3, 2009 at 6:20 pm
..4 aylacoskun34: i do not think that the situation is getting worse..because there were lot worser times for women than it is nowadays, they even could not study at university and going to work was impossible, so i think the world has moved forward..
..nothing can evolve so fast that everybody is satisfied..i really believe that with our skills and education we will get what we deserve..ONCE
May 22, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I also think that there still a lot of discrimination and it has to be done a lot. And only to say that things are getting better and to wait is not enough. Because the position we have now in the labor market and also concerning the equities in many areas is not a result of waiting.
May 27, 2009 at 1:46 pm
For me it is happy to see that women just can reach the leading positions. The gender-based discrimination has its origin in the ancient time, that is why I also think that time has the key role in women’s working future. So wait…(and fight, of course)