More housework instead

Women still earn 14 percent less

Each woman performs an average of 1,390 hours of unpaid care and domestic work per year.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

Women are paid around 14 percent less at work - and do more than twice as much unpaid work as men. On International Women's Day on March 8, the latest figures from the economic research institute Wifo and the Momentum Institute show that women still do not have equal rights.

Gender equality is not only an important issue in the world of work. According to the Momentum Institute, there are also differences when it comes to unpaid work such as housework. On average, women do more unpaid work than men. 

Women take on more than half of unpaid work
Austrians work a total of almost 9 billion hours a year without pay - i.e. outside of work. Women do more than half of this, namely 5.7 billion hours. On average, every woman performs 1,390 hours of unpaid care and housework per year. According to the calculations, she loses 28,000 euros per year as a result. 

According to the Momentum Institute, the added value of unpaid work in Austria amounts to a total of 100 billion euros, which is more than the largest economic sector, the production of goods. Housework such as cleaning or cooking accounts for the largest share - 80 billion euros. The added value of care and support amounts to 20 billion euros.

Women earn almost 14 percent less than men
A look at the world of work shows that gender equality has not yet been achieved either. The pay slips of men and women still look different: on average, women earned 13.9% less than men in 2023, as calculated by Wifo. The good news is: in 2011, the difference was still just under 20 percent.

However, the pay gap would be even greater if women and men had the same educational qualifications. This is because women's wages do not increase as much as men's with higher education. In 2022, women with an apprenticeship qualification earned 2.5 percent more than women with a compulsory school-leaving qualification. For men, the difference was as much as 5.6 percent.

Women work in lower-paid professions
The reason for this is that women often work in lower-paid professions such as retail or office clerk or hairdresser. Men, on the other hand, prefer better-paid technical sectors. In sectors where fewer men work, wages tend to be lower, analyze the Wifo experts.

Adjusted pay gap

The adjusted pay gap takes into account those parts of the pay gap that are based on systematic differences between women and men. These include, for example, choice of occupation or sector, part-time employment and management positions.

A less shocking result is obtained when calculating the adjusted pay gap. Here, the difference between salaries is only 6.3 percent. This figure has only fluctuated slightly since 2012.

The unequal pay is therefore due, for example, to career choice, working hours, barriers to promotion, differences in negotiating behavior and discrimination, the researchers summarize.