The Institute for the Equality of Women and Men has presented its 2008 report on the gender pay gap in Belgium. The findings show that this gap has remained stagnant at 15% for full-time employees in manufacturing and services – just like the previous year. Labour market segregation is seen as the main cause of this divide. The report states that a firm policy change will be needed in the coming years to significantly reduce the gender pay gap in Belgium.
The Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (Instituut voor de Gelijkheid van Vrouwen en Mannen/Institut pour l’Égalite des Femmes et Hommes, IGVM/IEFH) has presented its second annual report (in Dutch, 1Mb PDF) on the pay gap between male and female workers in Belgium. The report presents the official figures concerning remuneration differences between women and men. In this regard, it applies the recognised European indicators which are being used up to 2010. The main source of data for the report is the Structure of Earnings Survey, which is also complemented by official wage data from the National Social Security Office (Rijksdienst voor Sociale Zekerheid/Office National de Sécurité Sociale, RSZ-ONSS). New features of this year’s report are the figures pertaining to several sectors – in particular the public sector – along with findings on the wage gap in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and by joint sector committee in the field of collective bargaining.
The report is the result of a close collaboration between IGVM/IEFH and the Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue (Federale Overheidsdienst Werkgelegenheid, Arbeid en Sociaal Overleg/Service Public Fédéral Emploi, Travail et Concertation Sociale), the national statistical office Statistics Belgium and the Federal Planning Bureau (Federaal Planbureau/Le Bureau Fédéral du Plan, FPB).
Report conclusions
The main conclusions of the report can be summarised as follows.
Stagnation in wage gap
The wage gap is continuing to persist in Belgium, only decreasing very slightly in recent years. In fact, the figures seem to point to a stagnation in the pay gap between women and men. Moreover, this gap appears to have increased among younger people, that is, those aged 25–30 years, after some years of professional activity. Although younger women are more highly trained, this factor has not been sufficient to close the wage gap. The report states that robust policy change will be needed in the coming years to bring about a significant decrease in the gender pay gap.
Segregation in labour market
Segregation in the Belgian labour market is the most significant cause of the gender wage gap, according to the report. Almost 60% of the interpretable part of the pay gap can be attributed to the different labour market positions of women and men – more specifically, in relation to their occupation, sector of employment, type of employment contract and working hours.
The size of the wage gap also varies strongly according to the different sectors and employment status. In the private sector, the gender wage gap is about 30% among white-collar workers and around 20% among blue-collar workers. In the public sector, the gender pay gap amounts to 10% among those with a contractual employment relationship; however, no gender wage gap is evident among statutory civil servants.
Impact of working hours
Part-time work increases the pay gap considerably, with the gap growing exponentially with the increasing age of women working part time. The unequal division of working hours between women and men is another significant factor which helps to explain the differences between the average monthly and yearly job-related incomes of women and men.
Other key findings
Among the other key findings of the report are the following.
- The gender pay gap, calculated on the basis of the average gross monthly wage, amounted to 15% in 2007 for full-time employees in the manufacturing and services sectors – just like the previous year.
- Among full-time and part-time employees as a whole, the gender pay gap amounts to 25% in manufacturing and services. The unequal distribution of average working hours between women and men plays a significant role in this context.
- In micro enterprises – that is, those with fewer than 10 employees – wages are generally lower for women and men. The gender pay gap is also narrower in these small companies, amounting to 12% among full-time employees working in manufacturing and services.
- In 2005, a total of €86.5 billion in gross wages were paid in Belgium. About 37% of this total amount was paid to women, and the remaining 63% to men. Taking into account the proportion of female employees, the report estimates that women as a whole were underpaid by €7.347 billion in this year.
- Women are overrepresented in the lower wage categories: 43% of full-time working women earn less than €2,000 in gross wages a month, compared with 25% of men.
- The gender pay gap varies considerably according to sector. The largest wage gaps are evident in the following industries: textiles, gas and electricity, civil aviation, the manufacture of audio, video and telecommunications equipment, and financial business services.
- In manufacturing and services, women are underrepresented by 43% at managerial level, if taking into account the female presence on the shop floor.
- The average hourly wage of women with children is approximately €0.60 lower than that of women without children.
- About 46% of the wage gap can be attributed to detectable factors related to the occupational and labour market position of women and men; however, the remaining 54% cannot be explained by these ‘structural’ labour market factors.
Commentary
The fact that 54% of the pay gap cannot be explained by structural factors raises questions about other existing forms of discrimination and unequal treatment of women, which may explain this proportion of the wage gap. Trade unions are, in any case, aware of this problem and have played an active role in 2008 in campaigns and activities seeking to combat the gender pay gap. Initiatives in this regard include those of the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond/Confédération des syndicats chrétiens, ACV/CSC) (see website Vrouwenloonwijzer) and of the Belgian General Confederation of Labour (Algemeen Belgisch Vakverbond/Fédération Générale du Travail de Belgique, ABVV/FGTB) (see website on Equal Pay Day).
Guy Van Gyes, Higher Institute for Labour Studies (HIVA), Catholic University of Leuven (KUL)