United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Work Session on Gender Statistics Discussant for the section: Revisiting the gender pay gap Geneva, March 2012 Francesca Francavilla OECD Development Centre Gender Initiative Project 12 th March 2012

2 Introduction GPG in OECD countries, what do we know about GPG: Women earn lower wages than men in all the point of the earning distribution (glass ceiling in some countries) Explanations: Women work more in lower paid occupations/sectors; Women work less hours and more in part-time jobs; GPG is lower for young women and higher with motherhood; Large part of GPG remains unexplained Less studies available for non-OECD countries Austria, Israel, Russia Fed., Switzerland, Egypt, Jordan.

3 Summary: common findings (1) Women participate less into the labour market; Women work shorter hours than men (all countries); Women are more in part-time jobs; Job/occupation segregation; Dead-end jobs (Israel) – domestic work (Jordan) Public sector (Jordan, Israel, Egypt) Statistical discrimination (Jordan)

4 Summary: common findings (2) Women report lower hourly and monthly earnings (all countries + some glass ceiling); Women are promoted less than men (by seniority, edu., occupation); Higher GPG in the private sector (Jordan); Motherhood reduces the likelihood to be promoted (Israel); For equal number of hours for men and women, women progress more than men at higher worked hours (Israel)

5 Summary: comparability GPG is: 16% in OECD countries (median annual/year earnings) 9.3% in Jordan (average hourly earnings) 25.5% in Austria (average gross hourly earnings) 25% in Switzerland (median gross monthly earnings) Are these values comparable? Issues that affect GPG estimation: mean or median Gross or net earnings Part-time/full-time Monthly/weekly/hourly earnings With/without overtime Employer-employee surveys (e.g. SES –Austria) Household surveys

6 Questions for discussion 1.Is there a “ best way ” to measure the GPG? 2.Unequal pay or unequal employment ? should we focus on women participation, job segregation, availability of child care services, women access to resources? 3.Why the unexplained component is still so high? (unobservable or discrimination) 4.Can we say that GPG is due to discrimination against women? Can we estimate discrimination? 5.Are we estimating correctly the GPG? What about missing value? 6.Should we use selection models (or matching models) to take in account women selection into the labour market?

7 Discussion

8 Concluding statement: future research 1.Knowledge on the determinants of the GPG across the world has been increased but still a large part of the GPG remains unexplained. 2.Multivariate analysis helps to get a better understanding of the determinants of the GPG 3.Need to better understand why women are segregate in occupations/sectors with lower payment and career prospective: barriers, preferences, mismatch between labour supply/demand, or discrimination?

9 Concluding statement: future policies 1.Although most of the countries legislate to ensure equal pay regardless of gender the GPGs remain in almost all the countries. 2.Promote not stereotype roles of women in the labour market 3.Tackle barriers to enter, stay and perform in the labour market for women (e.g. child care services, equal distribution of household domestic and care task in the household) 4.Promote a more gender equal use of flexible workplace practices that reconcile work and family life and which fit into career patterns.

Francesca Francavilla More information on the Gender Initiative Project: