Gender Budgeting and Pay Equity. The direct way to equal sharing of responsibilities Dr. Brigitte Schnegg University of Bern, Switzerland

Gender Budget Equal PayEqual Responsibility in Care Giving New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg –

Gender Budget To talk about Gender Budgets means to talk about gender equality in terms of money.

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – “… anyone genuinely interested in strengthening women’s rights and promoting gender equality must be prepared to take a close look at finance and public spending in order to shed some light on the question of how much of it goes to women and girls, and how much to men and boys. What real impact does the income and expenditure of the State have on gender equality and how do changes in spending policy affect the distribution of paid and unpaid work? Are men and women equally affected or is there a difference?” Micheline Calmy Rey, Foreign Minister of Switzerland Gender Budget

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Gender Budget 2002 and 2003 the Swiss Canton of Basel has carried out a detailed and innovative gender budget analysis exploring state expenditure and state revenues (taxes and public charges). Example gender_publ_liste.php

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Gender Budget Up to the age of 75, state benefits per female inhabitant are lower than those per male inhabitant From the age of 75 onwards per capita expenditure increases considerably more strongly for women than for men Results In the Canton of Basel, men receive approx. 15% more state benefits on average than women

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Gender Budget Contrary to expectations average health costs in the age of 75+ are not higher for the female population than for the male population Higher state benefits for women 75+ are due to welfare expenses; as a consequence of lacking care provisioning at home, women stay at nursing homes more frequently. Explanations

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Pay Equity „It‘s not fair. Women doing the same job I‘m doing in this office are being paid more than I am.“

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Pay Equity 1868 equal access to the labor market equal pay for equal work 2009 the pay gap continues to exist 25 % in the private sector 18 % in the public sector

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Pay Equity Women compared to men earn less because of unequal positions: -underrepresented in leading management positions -overrepresented in low income sectors -of lower education and less professional qualification - of less job-experience 60 % of unequal pay

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Pay Equity 40 % of unequal pay Women compared to men earn less because of gender discrimination -unequal classification of jobs in gender- segregated labour market -unequal evaluation of professional performance of men and women -unequal pay for equal work: no further explanation

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Equal Responsibility in Care Giving Care belongs to the fundamental needs of human beings and is crucial for human well-being.

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Equal Responsibility in Care Giving Its importance and its value are underestimated…... because care is - largely done as unpaid work - largely done by women

Equal Responsibility in Care Giving A Study on “The Political and Social Economy of Care” carried out for UNRISD at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies of University of Berne by Mascha Madörin and Nadja Baghdadi gives in care economy data for Switzerland. The results will be accessible in a few months on the UNRISD website:

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Equal Responsibility in Care Giving Facts and Figures on Care (Data from Switzerland) Value of unpaid care work corresponds to 64% of GDP Volume of unpaid work outnumbers volume of paid work by 20% Men are doing 2/3 of paid work, Women 2/3 of the unpaid work Division of labour between men and women also in unpaid work Very high overall workload for households with children Increased Gender imbalance between paid an unpaid work in households with children

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Conclusions Gender budgeting, pay equity and shared responsibilities in care giving are closely interdependent → Women’s higher care responsibilities affect access to equal pay → Unequal pay leads to higher shares of women in care work → Gender imbalanced budgets tend to increase unpaid workloads We need strategies taking simultaneously into account equal sharing of responsibilities in care giving, pay equity and gender responsive budgeting

New York, March 3rd 2009 Dr. Brigitte Schnegg – Thank you for your attention Dr. Brigitte Schnegg University of Bern, Switzerland