Spotlights
GERMAN WOMEN
EARN 30 PERCENT
LESS THAN MEN
According to the German Statistical Office, female full-time
salaried employees in manufacturing, commerce, the banking
and insurance industry earned
an average of r2,602 per month
in 2003. This corresponded, as in
2002, to about 30 percent less
than their male colleagues. Fulltime female wage earners in the
non-farming sector achieved
average monthly gross pay of r1,885 or 26 percent
less than male workers (r2,549).
The highest paid jobs were those of director and
branch manager. Here, too, the women earned
32 percent less than the men. Women earned the
highest salaries as business consultants and organizers; again, their salaries were 18 percent lower than
those of their male counterparts.
In eastern Germany, the earnings differential
between men and women was markedly smaller than
in western Germany. Salaried women earned 23 percent less and wage earners 22 percent less than their
male colleagues.
As a rule, for the five occupations most favoured by
men and women, the differences in wages between
male and female workers are less pronounced than
those of salary earners. Gender specific earnings differentials are normally also a bit smaller.
H.C.S.
In large part, the earnings differential is due to different activities – in terms of their placement in performance groups. The highest salaries are earned in
performance group I which comprises the management employees. It includes four times as many men
as women (8.0 percent vs. 2.0 percent). In performance group II, which requires responsible activities
and special experience, men also dominate. In 2003,
group II contained 40 percent of the male salary
earners compared to only 15 percent of the women.
There are still considerable gender specific earnings
differentials within both performance groups.
Women earned 24 percent less in performance
group I and 17 percent less in performance group II.
More than half of the women and 45 percent of the
men are assigned to performance group III. Women
dominate even more in groups IV and V. They more
frequently hold jobs with lower qualifications.
Salaries may also be compared by job classification
rather than performance group. Some jobs may be
called typical women’s jobs. Thus, in office jobs, the
share of women is around 60 percent. In sales, about
60 percent of sales personnel and 80 percent of
cashiers are women. In most of these jobs women as
well as men earned below average salaries.
CESifo Forum 1/2004
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