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EQUALITY

Why is the gender pay gap so big in German-speaking countries?

In Germany, Switzerland and Austria, women are losing ground in the fight for pay equity, according to a recent analysis from the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research.

Published: 8 March 2024 15:05 CET
Pictured is a work meeting.
Employees gather at a work meeting. Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

As DACH countries celebrate International Women’s Day, inequalities in the workplace still remain – especially when it comes to remuneration. 

Despite efforts to close the gender pay gap, new research reveals that men still receive much higher bonuses than women in German-speaking countries.

“The gender pay gap in bonus payments is significantly bigger than in basic salary,” said Ifo researcher Michaela Paffenholz in a report published on Tuesday. “These major differences make the gap in total salary even larger.”

Ifo’s data reveals the pay gap in performance related bonuses extends across the DACH region. In Germany, women receive an average of 6.1 percent less in bonus payments, while in Austria, the gap between men and women is 7.2 percent and in Switzerland, women receive an average of 5.2 percent less in bonuses.

The prevalence of performance-based pay continues to grow across Europe. The number of workers receiving performance bonuses nearly doubled from 2000 to 2015 to include nearly a third of European workers, according to a European Trade Union Institute working paper. 

Reducing the gender pay gap is one of the top priorities of the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025. But the issue of unequal bonus pay has received little focus from policymakers. 

Ifo Institute’s analysis found that bonus payments can increase the gender wage gap. 

In Germany, the pay gap between men and women in basic salary is 2.7 percent, but bonuses increase this gap to 3 percent in total salary. In Austria, the gender gap in basic salary is 2.3 percent, with bonus pay bumping that up to 2.9 percent.

In Switzerland, the gap is 1.2 percent for basic salary; bonus payments increase this to 1.6 percent for total salary.

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Still, the gender pay gap is not limited to hourly earnings and bonus payments: working in lower-paid sectors and fewer working hours also contribute to the gap between men and women’s pay.

According to statistics from the Germany’s Statistical Office, working women in Germany earned 18 percent less than men in 2023. 

This story translates across the DACH region. In Austria women earned 18.4 percent less gross wages per hour than men in 2022. Swiss women face a similar reality. Working women earned 18 percent less than men in 2022, despite “equal pay for work of equal value” being enshrined in the federal constitution since 1981. 

Larger companies are overrepresented in the market data collected by Mercer, so the studies are not representative of all companies in the DACH region. 

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EQUALITY

Could Switzerland officially recognise a third gender status?

Legally, there are only two sexes in Switzerland: men and women. But could Nemo’s victory in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday change this?

Published: 14 May 2024 15:23 CEST
Could Switzerland officially recognise a third gender status?

Nemo identifies as ‘non-binary,’ that is, neither male nor female — the so-called ‘third sex.’

Therefore, non-binary people use the pronoun ‘they’ to identify themselves, rather than ‘he’ or ‘she.’

Nemo said their winning song, “The Code,” should send a message that Switzerland, where between dozens and possibly hundreds of thousands people are non-binary — should officially recognise those who don’t feel they belong to either the masculine or the feminine gender.

In a study by the Ipsos institute dated June 2023, Switzerland had the most people declaring themselves non-binary, transgender or gender fluid, among 30 countries analysed. Could the fact that neighbours Austria and Germany already recognise the so-called “third sex” encourage Switzerland to make a similar move?

So will it?

In a report it published at the end of 2022, the Federal Council decided that Switzerland is not ready to register a third gender in the civil status register.

Such a change, the government pointed out at the time, would require numerous adaptations of the Constitution, as well as federal and cantonal laws.

The population may not be quite ready for such a change either.

In May 2023, a survey published by Tamedia, Switzerland’s largest media group, showed that 62 percent of respondents, when asked whether they would approve of adding a “third gender” or “miscellaneous” box in official documents, answered “no.”

Could Nemo’s victory shift public opinion, along with the government’s stance?

The hopes of the non-binary community lie with Beat Jans, head of the Federal Department of Justice.

Before he was elected to the Federal Council in December 2023, Jans was the head of Basel’s government.

In that role, he launched a number of measures to expand the canton’s equality law to combat sex discrimination, including against non-binary, trans, intersex people, and the LGBTQIA+ community in general.

Jans already said he wants to meet with Nemo and discuss their views of the issues faced by that community in Switzerland.

Whether such a meeting would actually pave the way to statutory changes, however, remains to be seen.

How do the Swiss feel about non-traditional family models in general?

In September 2021, 64 percent of Swiss voters approved the “marriage for all” legislation, allowing gay and lesbian couples to get legally married.

The law went into effect on July 1st, 2022. 

Several years prior, in 2018, the parliament had extended the scope of Switzerland’s anti-racism laws to include discrimination based on sexual orientation.

As a result, homophobia had become a criminal offence.

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