The gender pay gap myth proven false in Sweden

Statistics Sweden, the institute of national public statistics in Sweden, published interesting results from a longitudinal study in March 2017 concerning the gender wage gap. Three professional groups were the subjects of the study: physicians, teachers, and engineers. The researchers followed the three groups during a 15-year long period (2000–2014), and their conclusion was:

• The main issue is not the wage gap, but the income gap!
• The gap is mainly not between men and women, but between fathers and mothers!

Which consequently means, according to the researcher, that the economical so-called gender gap is mainly created and sustained by decisions regarding parental leave and part-time work, made by parents in the private sphere rather than by employers. But feminists still love discussing the wage gap, don’t they? So what’s their hidden agenda?

Results from the study

Wages

Surprisingly as it may seen (?), the average wage difference between men and women in the male dominant engineering group was not even significant during the whole period! Also the dominant female teacher group showed the same kind of pattern for the first eight years, until 2008, whereafter an average gap of up to +1,800 SEK/month (€180) appeared to the men’s favour in the final year 2014. The most significant wage gap, though, was in the most gender-balanced physicians’ group, where men were in a +7,000 SEK/month (€700) favour in 2014 — about twice as much as the gap was in 2000.

Income

But the researchers also studied the actual average income for each gender — i.e. wages in combination with e.g. pay supplements, overtime compensation, and/or earnings from multiple employments or own businesses. Not too surprising the income gap was larger in men’s favour than the wage gap. Among teachers, the income gap had reached about +4,000 SEK/month (~€400), among engineers it was +7,000 SEK/month (~€700), and among physicians some +10,000 SEK/month (~€1,000) in the final year 2014.

Part-time work, parental leave and sick leave

Also part-time work was studied, since it often occurs as the employed have become parents:

• The most gender well-balanced group regarding part-time work was teachers. Among them women’s part-time work increased during the first years up to its peak in 2008, then including more than 1/3 of the female participants, whereafter it decreased. Also male teachers’ part-time work increased during the first years, reaching a steady 15 percent that lasted throughout the rest of the measurement period.
• In the engineer group, men very rarely worked part-time at all, while the proportion of women doing so persistently increased during the first years, reaching about 19–24 percent from 2004 and onwards.
• Among the female physicians, part-time work increased during the whole period and finally reached almost 30 percent, while men stopped at about 15 percent in 2006.

Furthermore, the researcher assumed that the female professionals had more overall parent- and sick-leaves then their male colleagues.

The research method in detail

The data sources

• The empirical data in this study was drawn from a combination — partly wages from a selection group of teachers, engineers and physicians; and partly the income from the population of these professions.
• Both the selection groups and the population received their university degrees during the 1998/1999 school year, and also had an employment from the year of 2000. Some of them continued their education during the measurement period. Although, the study does not show the gender proportion of those which did, and the effects may also be unclear.

The measurements: wages and income

• The measurments being used in the study were average basic gross wages and average gross income, in which all extra payments (e.g. pay supplements, overtime compensation, multiple employments, own business income, and transfers of sickness benefit, parental benefit, and unemployment benefit) were included.
• All wages compared were full-time equivalents, thus compensating for eventual part-time work.

Conclusion

1. The first main issue is not the wage gap, but the income gap.
2. The second main issue is not the gender gap, but the parenthood gap between fathers and mothers.

The first false myth: unequal wages for the same job!

Obviously there may be a fraction of truth to this myth, although in respect to this study it may not deserve the attention it gets in general, since two of the professions were quite gender equal for a majority of the measurement period: the teachers and the engineers.

The separation in the teacher group was initiated after eigth years, while the engineer group sustained its equality throughout the whole measurement period — regardless of the imbalance of part-time work between males and females, which we must consider as remarkable!

The second false myth: it all comes down to gender!

On the other end, mostly the income level — but also indirectly wage — depends on the amount of full- or part-time work, and the amount of e.g. overtime work. Which in practice means that absence at work results in lower income, and in the long run it also affects the annual salary increases since it is harder on a part-time basis to reach achievements and prove them in salary negotiation with the employer. That is a ruling economical rationale on the labour market, regardless reason for absence. And since women tend to work more part-time than men — especially as they become parents, and then also have more full-time leaves due to parenting benefits — that has a negative economical impact. Not just during the actual part- or full-time leave periods, but also for the succeeding years’ wage developement — simply due to salary-increases predominately are based upon proportional percentages of the current salary, not absolute amounts.

So basically, the study to a great extent most certanily shows the economical impact of a lack of symmetry… not primarily between men and women, but between fathers and mothers. So, could we please drop the simple and actually false-leading predominant gender agenda myth called wage gap, and instead focus on what is really going on here, what is really making great impact? The great issue thus concerns the symmetry, or lack of symmentry, in parents’ agreements about parenting benefits outtake and part-time work. Which is decided in the private sphere, not by employers.

It is shown that the wage differences are increasing after a couple of years in each profession, which is of no surprise since the female workers tend to spend more time off-work during the early offspring years — while the male workers choose/are forced to the predominant provider obligation. We would like a more honest debate about exactly what forces female and male parents making their choices as their children are newborns/inphants, because that is actually what this study is pointing at. Or, in other words: Keep on repeating the message about wage gap obviously is the faulty and blind alley route to go, thus blaming employers for unfair wage levels due to gender is simply avoiding the really important issue of each gender’s choices as their children have come to this world. Employers can adjust the wage gap, and so they obviously have done, but can they really stop men from working more then women? Certainly the answer is no, the responsibility must be on the men and their spouses themselves!

Methodological critique (and wishlist)

Measurements

Since the statistics from Statistics Sweden are based on the average central measurements alone, thus without any distribution measurements, we would like more statistical measurements being presented. Building knowledge and action upon one average measurement alone may not be considered a robust path to go, since averages have their pros and cons. For example, with just a few extreme outliers (i.e. a few really high or low earnings) the result will get easily skewed, thus not being appropriate for the majority wages or income for each gender. Therefore we would like complementary medians and mode measurements (i.e. the most frequent value), as well as measurements of the value distribution (i.e. variations) to complete the picture of the wage and income structure of each gender.

No credentials, and no vociational sectors

Furthermore, the results are only showing wages and income, but e.g. no educational credentials — which mainly may affect the start salary. Also, the vocational sectors are not presented (e.g. municipality, county, state and businesses), which of course will affect the results. Probably men are more into the business sector than women are, for instance, therefore rewarded with greater salaries?

Appendix

As an appendix, I add an interview with Dr Warren Farrell, who to a great extent has been studying the issue of pay gaps between men and women for centuries by now — and its implications for both sexes:

Sources

1. Statistics Sweden. (2016). The Income Gap is Larger than the Wage Gap (in Swedish).