Difference still large – Austria lags behind women’s salaries

The so-called gender pay gap – which compares the average gross hourly earnings of women and men in the private sector – fell from 23.5 percent to 18.8 percent between 2011 and 2021. The EU average is 12.7 percent.

Women more often in low-paid jobs
According to Statistics Austria, about one third of Austria’s high pay gap is due to gender-specific differences in the labor market. Part of this can be explained by the fact that women are more likely to work in lower paid service jobs and sectors with lower earning potential, while men are more likely to work in higher paid technical jobs and managerial positions. Differences in working hours are already taken into account by the use of hourly wages – part-time work is also paid less per hour on average, which affects women more than men. In addition, women are on average less employed in the company. It is by no means due to poorer qualifications: according to the level of education, women should already earn more than men from a purely mathematical point of view, Statistics Austria emphasizes.

The employment rate of women is high in Austria, but so is part-time work, which has recently been the subject of intense political debate in the wake of labor shortages. The employment rate of women aged 15 to 64 in Austria in 2021 was 68.1 percent (men 76.7 percent) above the EU average of 63.4 percent (men 73.3 percent). Austria had a 49.6 percent share (men 11.6 percent) of women working part-time, meaning 79 percent of all part-time workers were women. On average, the part-time rate for women in the EU in 2021 was only 29.5 percent (men 9.3 percent).

Part-time work is still female
The reason for the high percentage of part-time work is probably primarily due to childcare obligations, for which women still seem to feel primarily responsible: for women with children under the age of 15, part-time work was the dominant form of paid work, explains Statistics Austria out. In 2021, the part-time percentage for women aged 25 to 49 with children under the age of 15 was 72.8 percent. In contrast, the part-time rate for men with children under the age of 15 was only 6.8 percent.

The differences in working life are also reflected in pensions: according to data from the umbrella organization of social security institutions, the average old-age pension for women in 2021 was 1,264 euros and that for men, 2,164 euros. In 2021, the average age at which a private pension starts will be 59.9 for women and 61.9 for men.

Women are more at risk of poverty in old age
Retired women and single parents are at greater financial risk. According to the EU-SILC 2021 Income and Living Conditions Survey, 26 percent of retirees living alone were at risk of poverty, but only 15 percent of retirees living alone. And single parents – these are almost exclusively women with children – have the highest risk of poverty of all households at 36 percent.

Single parents are also among the groups most affected by the current crisis: according to the study on the social impact of the crisis, in the third quarter of 2022, 34 percent of single parents reported difficulty making ends meet (total population between 16 and 69 years: 16.3 percent). More than 45 percent of single parents indicate that they will have difficulty paying housing costs (such as rent, home loans, operating costs and energy) in the coming three months.