Uncommon Grace The Autobiography of Isaac Folorunso
Close that gap!
1. CLOSE THAT GAP!
Angelica Salvi Del Pero
Senior Advisor, OECD Social Policy Division,
Directorate Employment Labour and Social Affairs
OECD ROUNDTABLE
BETTER GOVERNANCE FOR GENDER EQUALITY
REYKJAVIK 17 MAY 2017
2. Gender gaps in participation persist in
OECD countries
2
Labour force participation rates (%) by gender, and gender gap (percentage points), 15-64 year olds, 2015
Source: OECD Employment Database, http://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/onlineoecdemploymentdatabase.htm
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Gender gap Men Women
3. Gender pay gaps have changed little over
the past few years
Source: OECD Earnings distribution database.
3
Gender pay gap at median monthlya full-time earnings, 2005-2015
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
2015 2005
5. The cost of motherhood
5
Gender gap in median hourly earnings, full-time employees, 25- to 44–year- olds,
by presence of children, 2014
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
No children At least one child
6. What can we do : the broader tools
6
• Set family and childcare policies to give women and
men similar opportunities + incentives to work
= freedom to share responsibilities as people prefer
• Family, childcare and tax benefits policies
• Ensure right to return to full-time work for mothers
and fathers who wish to do so
7. Policies to address the pay gap
7
• Pay transparency measures.
• Requirements to analyze wage gaps, share info
• Certification
=> Promising tool; important to evaluate effectiveness
MCM monitoring report: 25 countries introduced
measures since 2103 including on pay transparency.
• Support firms’ best practices for hiring :
• unbiased job advertising, impartiality in hiring
interviews and human resources management.
• Public awareness campaigns and legal provisions against
discrimination .
8. Thank you - Further information
OECD Gender Data Portal
OECD Closing the Gender Gap - Act Now
The OECD Gender Recommendation – progress
report due for 7/8 June 2017
www.oecd.org/gender
8
Editor's Notes
In looking at this chart, it’s clear we are not there when it comes to closing the pay gap.
On average in the OECD we find that the median monthly earnings of women earn 14.7% lower than those of men.
Sure there have been improvements: in most countries the pay gap is now narrower than it was in 2005. On average across OECD countries 1 percentage point lower than in 2005. But that is not enough progress in 10 years!
Notes:
The gender pay gap is defined as the difference between male and female median full-time monthly earnings divided by median male full-time monthly earnings. Data refer to weekly earnings for Canada,, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Data refer to 2014, instead of 2015 for Germany and Japan,
It is important to keep in mind that gender pay gaps capture the difference in worker’s characteristics, in the type of jobs men and women do, as well as the differences in the selection process in the labour market between men and women.
This chart shows how much of the pay gap is explained by observable characteristics - like number of hours worked, the level of education, the industry of occupation. These characteristics basically account for everything but the dark blue gap. So in some countries about half of the pay gap is in fact due to different choices in terms of working hours or occupations. About one quarter of the monthly pay gap [attention, not 26 percentage points but 26% of the total gap; this does not correspond to the chart] is explained by the observed difference in the percentage of men and women working reduced hours (i.e. part time). The sector of occupation explains one 10th of the total pay gap.
If we instead look at worker’s characteristics, mainly the level of education and seniority, women should earn on average more than men – because women tend to have better education.
The unexplained component is hard to disentangle, and is associated with a variety of factors that drive wage differentials, including discrimination and personal, unobservable characteristics of workers, such as motivation and ability.
These unobserved characteristics also change with age, marital status, parenthood, attitudes, and the policies in place in a particular country.
