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OECD
In most countries, there's a gap between men's and women's earnings, and it grows when women have children.
Motherhood has many rewards, but as many women already know, they aren’t usually the financial kind.
A new and comprehensive look at how much money 25- to 44-year-olds earn finds that women of that age earn less than men worldwide, and the gap between men’s and women’s pay grows considerably wider when just comparing moms and dads.
The Organization for Cooperation and Development looked at the wage gap among men and women in its 34 member countries. On average across the countries, they found that median earnings for women who worked full-time were 16 percent less than men working full-time.
That’s actually 4 percentage point improvement over 2000, the researchers said. Most of the improvement came between 2000 and 2005.
The report found that the gap grew much wider for people in their mid-20s through mid-40s who also were raising children ages 15 and under. Median wages for moms in that situation were 22 percent less than dads in that situation.
For people who weren’t raising children, there also was a wage gap, but it was much smaller. Women of that age without kids made 7 percent less than dads without kids.
In a handful of countries, including Ireland and Australia, the women without kids were actually earning slightly more, on average, than the men without kids.
The comparisons were among full-time workers, but the report noted that women – and especially mothers - are much more likely to work part-time. Many women choose to work part-time so they can have more time for family, but the report noted that it’s tougher to find secure, career-track employment at a part-time job.
In a statement accompanying the report’s release, OECD officials argued that things like high child care costs are keeping some women from working as many hours as they might like, or from pursuing certain careers. They said that, in turn, could end up stifling some economic growth.
“Closing the gender gap must be a central part of any strategy to create more sustainable economies and inclusive societies,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said in a statement.
Worldwide, many women have risen to positions of great power in recent years.
In Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is one of the world’s most powerful politicians. And in the United States women including Yahoo! Chief Executive Melissa Mayer have come to command a lot of sway among business leaders.
Still, most top positions are still held by men, and the OECD report noted that the wage gap was wider, on average, at the top of the pay scale.
In the United States, the gap between men’s and women’s earnings has remained little changed even as wages have fallen for everyone because of the recession and weak recovery. The median earnings for women who worked full-time and year-round were 77 cents for every dollar a man earned in 2011, according to the latest Census data.
Related:
Wage gap starts right after college, research shows
Women face stubborn wage gape as wages fall for everyone
Leave a Comment:
Am I the only one that does not understand that graph? Where is the cost factored in?
"Women of that age without kids made 7 percent less than dads without kids,"
Dad's without kids? There goes my last brain cell, sometimes this website is absurd
50 million folks would like a job. The media hires college grads who think like this, speak like this, write like this. It is everywhere. It's like a bad translation by a Chinese student trying to figure out English after one year of study.
Maybe one of the reasons for the gap is the difference in men's wages when they're responsible for a family and take their jobs more seriously as a result. People react to parental responsibilities differently - typically (in my experience) for mothers the job becomes secondary to the needs of the children, while for fathers there's an incentive to earn more.
I chose not to have children. I do not have a college degree but have worked with the same company for many years and they have rewarded my honesty, dedication and hard work with good pay. I make more than my sister who has a college degree, and three children. To have or not have children is a very personal choice. But as one who has no children I understand some of why that pay gap is there. Woman must take substantial time first for the birthing process. My experience with working with women who have children, they miss a LOT of work. One cannot expect to miss two or three weeks a year or leave early because something has come up with the children, and expect to be paid the same as the person who dedicates her entire self to her job.
I am a proponent of equal pay for equal work/accomplishments. Am glad to see the gap closed on that basis. I have seen people who want equal to mean "same job title". So while one worker puts in long hours, puts the job first, stays late when the job requires, works odd hours, delivers results, they do it for year on year. Other people may claim their legal rights to time off benefits for this or that. Some times, those people taking the time off later claim they are treated unequally when they don't get the pay the other folks are making. So when they want the legal benefit they jump on the time off thing, later when they see a money diff they claim improper discrimination occurred. And there are bosses who do cheat people. So it always comes down to a case by case basis.
Andrea, it is your right to make that choice. And I do not doubt it was the right one for you. You seem very self-centered.
Remember this, those children of your sister, and all the other working moms who had to take time off to care for sick kids ect, will be paying your retirement and medicare and nursing home expenses. Perhaps you should be a little more appreciative of women having children.
Most mothers work because they need the money. If the husbands made enough (or stuck around) more would probably stay at home until the kids are in school at least.
I had two children and worked the whole time, just for the record. Never was I critisized for taking off to often because I only did it if I needed to take off.
haven't you heard? women with kids MUST make the same income as those who put in many more hours and take off far fewer days without kids! how dare you challenge feminist logic?!
Andrea-2351936, you remind me of one of my relatives, who had a career and who chose to be childless.
After she retired and became sick with cancer, it was her niece who stepped up to take care of her, arrange for her nurses, deal with the insurance, work with the surgeons, etc.
Someone has to birth and raise the next generation.
It really depends on the job though. Some jobs require your presence, but not all jobs. I've had jobs where it would take one person 6 hours to do a set amount of work and another person 10 hours to do the same work. Should the person that takes 10 hours get paid more just for being slower? I don't think so. I've also had jobs that are project based and the time needed changes depending on the life cycle of the project. If a co-worker gets their job done and them going home early (for any reason) doesn't make more work for those around them, then I really don't care.
The article should examine the high costs (to society) of working moms. Obesity (family diet consists of McDonalds), increased family stress, higher divorce rates (to be studied). Let's not put women in a box, but let's also not forget the bigger picture.
Having children definitely hinders a woman's career. For the record, I'm childless, but I've seen it in the workplace. She misses months on end of maternity leave. If dad takes time for FMLA (parental bonding) it's frowned upon, even if it's his legal right. Dad rarely stays home with the kids when they're sick and often, only when mom's job is complaining about her absence. Her job is automatically considered secondary to his. She is now perceived, by her boss/company as being unreliable due to unexpected and frequent absenses. She will be passed over for projects for others who are perceived as taking their careers more "seriously." Bonuses and raises will be smaller as she makes less of a contribution to the company. The list just goes on.
If you cannot afford to care for a child, you should not have one. It's like preventing abuse before it starts:)
Most city/state jobs are very generous with 'moms to be', I've personally had partners who decided to get a job with a governmental agency so they have children and get paid for it 'THEY called it a second career', the only problem with that is that the MEN had to do twice the amount of work because some GOVERNMENTAL agency's are on a hiring freeze so we have to hold those positions open until 'NEW mom' decides to come back..a few times NEW Dad's take a leave of absence and if the governmental agency gives them a problem the union says its discriminatory (So NOW..you have people like me doing 3 times as much work...well guess what....now they get hurt at work for trying to do the work of 3 people) Bottom line; I'm retired now I don't give a F**k but some of these woman are just blood sucking leaches I won't EVEN mention the ones that just want to get knocked up on purpose from different dads (On the job with a governmental agency) so they can get child support from different dads (The city/state automatically garnishes the dads paycheck if a court order for child support is in effect) I have seen trained Fire-fighter and Police Officers leave the department to join the military and fight/live over-seas so the 'Child-support' can be reduced or completely voided (Thats great.....'sarcastically' the city spends close to a million dollars training a police officer in ANY CITY,USA and they pack up and leave. NOT only are we out a trained individual but now the tax payers just footed a 1 million dollar training program for a person who left). Look I don't have an answer, and so far this system has been in effect for many years, this may ALSO be part of the problem why America is so screwed up financially (Thats MY view) AND I hate to say...a lot of these kids these days WITHOUT a dad turn out to be either abused or kids that run amuck in the adolescence years and wind up in jail when they should have had a a dad around telling them what they are doing isn't the smartest thing to do at the moment while mom is busy reading ;"50 Shades of Grey" Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays