The Gender Gap - A comparative analysis of wages in times of recession

This report on the gender wage gap is based on approximately 510,000 observations, collected by the Wage Indicator Foundation between 2006 and 2010.

Summary of findings:

• Men earn considerably more than women. This fact is borne out by a comparison of eleven countries selected from the dataset. The gender pay gap is especially pronounced in the developing countries and it occurs in most occupations.
• The gender wage differential widens with age.
• One of the most surprising findings of this report is the wide gender gap in the higher educated group: men with an undergraduate or a graduate degree are much better rewarded than women with comparable levels of education.
• Trade union membership seems to help narrow the pay gap.
• A high percentage of women think that women don’t have the same opportunities as men when it comes to promotion into management positions.
• Although there are some qualitative working conditions that favour the female labour force – usually women are exempt from dangerous jobs- women still carry the bulk of the household burden, resulting in a longer working day than male workers make.

Grouped by region the countries involved are:
in South America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Paraguay
in Central and North America: El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States
in Western Europe: Belgium, Denmark, Italy, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK
in Africa: Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia
in Asia: Armenia, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Download PDF:
Download Quarterly Wage Indicator report – March 2011. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: WageIndicator Foundation. (EN). (450 kB)