1GzuFGC

Causes of gender pay gapsIn looking for the causes of gender pay gaps,standard economic analyses often attemptto isolate direct or ‘pure’ discrimination bycontrolling for a host of factors that influencewomen’s and men’s pay, including educationand work experience. While ‘pure’ discriminationis associated with employers who deliberatelychoose to pay women less than men for the samejobs, other components of the gender pay gapare often attributed to gendered preferences(i.e., women ‘preferring’ jobs in less remunerativesectors) or choices (i.e., women acquiring less workexperience because they ‘choose’ to take time offto care for dependents). 151However, this idea is questionable, becauseeducational achievements, career ‘choices’ andemployment trajectories are themselves shapedby an environment that assigns the bulk of unpaidcare and domestic work to women and stereotypesthat cluster women into undervalued occupations. 152An emphasis on ‘pure’ discrimination thereforeignores all forms of indirect discrimination thatwomen experience over their life course.The subjects that women study (e.g., humanities,health and social work) are undervaluedcompared to the ones that men choose (e.g.,engineering, science and agriculture) even thoughsocieties need teachers and nurses just as much asthey need scientists and engineers. As discussed inthe previous section, differences in subject choicesin turn lead to occupational segregation, which isa major cause of the gender pay gap: in 33 lowandmiddle-income countries, gender differencesin occupation and sector of employment accountfor 10–50 per cent of the observed gender paygap. 153 Research in the United States has found thatwhere occupational segregation declined, so didgender pay gaps. 154 The two phenomena are henceintimately linked.Parenthood and marriage also impose a paypenalty on women while they award a bonus tomen. In the United Kingdom and the United States,for example, as much as 40 to 50 per cent of thegender gap in pay can be attributed to parenthoodand marriage. In both countries, while the overallgender pay gap has been narrowing overall, theparenthood pay gap is increasing. 155 In the UnitedStates, unmarried women earn 96 cents to anunmarried man’s dollar, but married women withat least one child earn 76 cents to the marriedfather’s dollar. 156 In sub-Saharan Africa and SouthAsia, the presence of children in the household isassociated with gender pay gaps of 31 per centand 35 per cent, respectively, compared to 4 percent and 14 per cent for women living in householdswithout children. 157Closing gender pay gapsAddressing gender pay gaps requires a range ofinterventions that address both ‘pure’ and indirectdiscrimination. Family-friendly policies are shownto reduce the gender pay gap in EU countries, witha stronger impact on the ‘glass ceiling’, than onthe ‘sticky floor’. 158 Where workers are organized,collective bargaining agreements help to reducewage dispersion and inequality and can thereforenarrow gender disparities in pay. 159One avenue that has been widely pursued is equalpay legislation, which has in some cases beenenforced through the courts (see Box 2.7). Giventhe extent of occupational segregation, lawsshould specify equal pay for work of equal valuerather than only applying to situations wherewomen and men are doing exactly the samejob, which are rare. However, assessing whatconstitutes work of equal value is a complex task,especially when women’s work is systematicallyundervalued. 160In many European countries where equal paylegislation has been in place for several decades,but where gender pay gaps have remainedstubbornly persistent, policy makers have madeadditional provisions to spur action by employersin the public and private sectors. For example, inGermany, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs,Senior Citizens, Women and Youth has developed atool called Logib-D to help companies analyse payand staffing structures to determine the existenceand extent of gender pay gaps. Tailored packagesof support are available to companies to help