‘Systemically relevant’ was a central term during the pandemic. Nursing staff and supermarket employees received public applause at the time. Years later it appears that their professional situation has improved little. “The system” is still mainly maintained by low-paid women.
Of the sixteen systemically relevant professional groups in total, eleven are paid less than average. Seven of these below-average paid professional groups are clearly dominated by women, with the share of women in some cases well above 60 percent. A large proportion of these women are migrants. This is evident from an analysis by the Momentum Institute on the occasion of the so-called Equal Pay Day on November 1. This is the international day of action for equal pay for women and men.
In 60 years we have achieved equal pay
From November 1 to the end of the year, women in Austria statistically work ‘for free’ on average – for 61 days that is exactly two months. That is only one day better than last year. If things continue at this snail’s pace, equal pay won’t be achieved for another 60 years. This gender-specific pay gap is sometimes even wider in the federal states: in Vorarlberg, for example, women with full-time jobs are paid almost a quarter less than men. The wage gap is smallest in Vienna, but even here full-time working women receive about eleven percent less.
Systemically relevant professions include the activities necessary to keep our society running. In two-thirds of the sixteen systemically important professional groups studied, the share of women is at least 50 percent – often much higher. A particularly large number of women work in healthcare and nursing, but also as cleaners or cashiers. In childcare, approximately 97 percent are women, meaning that almost the entire profession consists exclusively of women. The situation is similar for 91 percent of women in the group of cleaning and unskilled workers.
Migrant women are even more disadvantaged than Austrian women
About half of female kitchen helpers and cleaning staff have a migration background. Four in ten cashiers and a third of nurses and childcare workers are women and migrants. The macroeconomic analysis shows that women with a migration background are even more disadvantaged than women without a migration background. Migrant women have a gender pay gap of a quarter compared to men, while for women without a migration history this is eleven percent.
While the average gross hourly wage for female doctors is 45.5 euros, for kitchen help it is eleven euros. Teachers receive an average of 24 euros, nurses 16 euros and childcare workers and cashiers 13 euros. Systemically important male-dominated occupations include waste collection and processing, unskilled agricultural workers, technicians, soldiers and police officers.
Higher minimum wages requested
To eliminate this injustice, the Momentum Institute recommends adjusting the KV minimum wage to at least 2,500 euros gross and upgrading female-dominated industries and professions, especially in the low-wage sector. It would also be useful to have mandatory transparency of salaries, not only in large companies and the public sector, and mandatory quotas for women at all levels – both in public institutions and in the private sector, especially at board and management levels and not only in supervisory boards.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
