The Dominion Post, June 27, 2011, Monday

The Dominion Post

June 27, 2011, Monday

The Dominion Post

Stop blaming women for the continuing inequality in pay

Recent public gaffes blaming women for the gender pay gap are so "old school". The response is typical of those who understand remuneration as being about an individual market transaction and nothing else.

It's a position which focuses only on the person as an economic unit, rather than recognising the broader context in which we all work.

In particular, blaming women ignores the important role that social norms, the structure of the labour market and institutional policy settings play in producing wage inequalities.

Economists and sociologists have spent years examining the issue, and to date there is no research that attributes the gender wage gap to menstruation.

Nevertheless, understanding the pay gap does require us to look at "gender- specific" factors: such as qualifications or differences in how men and women are treated.

Renowned economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn, from Cornell University in the United States, have been studying the reasons behind the differences in women's and men's pay for 30 years. They argue that while the gender gap in educational attainment has closed over time, men still tend to be concentrated in career-oriented fields of study such as engineering, business or finance and specialist medicine that lead to relatively high earnings.

Men are also more likely to work in male-dominated sectors strategically important to the economy, more highly unionised and more highly paid. Construction, durable manufacturing and mining are examples.

By contrast, women are more likely to be in clerical or professional jobs and to work in the service industry - where wages tend to be lower than in male- dominated occupations.

Also, it is true that over their lifetime, women may build less work experience than men as it is women who tend to move in and out of the labour market to manage family responsibilities.

The latest New Zealand Time-Use survey shows that women still pick up more of the caring responsibilities than their male partners, but women's attachment to paid work has increased substantially in recent decades. OECD figures show that around the world women are likely to return to work much earlier after giving birth than they did 30 years ago.

This is assisted in part by the introduction of paid parental leave, and childcare subsidies. But the return is often necessary for single parents, or those who are so lowly paid that two incomes are essential to maintain a minimum standard of living.

It is still the case that on average, women spend less time in paid work than men because they are fulfilling the essential role of reproducing the labour force. And this means they do not acquire, as quickly as men, the experience needed to increase their rates of pay or climb the career ladder.

Ad Feedback It's this combination of factors: industry (where we work), occupation (what kind of job we have) and experience (how we support the combination of work and procreation) that explains over half of the gender wage gap.

So what other factors matter?

Well, we know that the acquisition of pay increases requires an investment in skills and professional development. This might not appear to be a gender-specific factor but international evidence indicates that there are still plenty of employers out there who believe that investing in professional training for women is risky behaviour.

There is a perception that because women are designed to give birth they are therefore more likely to quit their jobs and subsequently do not provide a sufficient investment "return". This perception, not unlike that of the Employers & Manufacturers Association's Alasdair Thompson, is unfounded.

There are numerous studies showing that, after controlling for qualifications and pay, women are no more likely to quit their jobs than men. And yet the perception is otherwise. This suggests that all other things being equal, and despite being illegal, discrimination remains a factor in why women are paid less than men. Evidence shows that traditional attitudes and expectations about women's roles mean "old school" employers assign women to lower level jobs and overlook them for promotion. That is, until a court case arises.

Then there is the obvious but less tangible factor, the question of what we as a society and our labour markets choose to value.

Why is it that nurses earn less than police officers, when nurses have to undergo three years of training and also put themselves at risk in the job?

Why is it that in promotion applications, those who spend the most time at the office are considered to be more committed to their job than those who juggle the combination of work and home?

And why is it that meaningful part- time work, supported by ongoing professional development and a career path, is not a permanent feature of our labour market?

The issue of gender wage inequality is not about what individual women do or don't do.

And without doubt, reducing the gender pay gap would advantage society as whole.

So let's get over the blame game and get on with building good business practice and good government policy.

Dr Jennifer Curtin teaches comparative politics and public policy at Auckland University.

- The Dominion Post