Employers shift the blame for the existence of the wage gap to women

According to the Central Statistical Office, the wage gap in Poland is 8.5 percent, and according to Eurostat, it is even 16.7 percent. Compared to other European countries, it is quite low, but has doubled in ten years.

There are different ways of calculating. Prof. Iga Magda who is a specialist on the subject has shown that the gap is at least a dozen or so percent, and may even reach 20-30 percent. Estimates vary depending on the source and type of data, whether we take into account gross wages, net wages, monthly wages, hourly wages, company size, and sector. The differences also depend on the methodology, especially whether the comparison of the average wages of women and men has been adjusted for employee characteristics such as age, education, seniority, industry, region. The adjusted wage gap in Poland is about 19 percent. If we take into account bonuses and awards, then in entities employing at least nine employees – as much as 30 percent.

The wage gap is the most overt, undisputed injustice. Equally educated and professionally experienced people earn differently depending on their gender, with men always earning more and women always earning less. While other matters can be discussed, such as the division of housework, which is a matter of mutual consent of the partners, here the gap is imposed in advance.

Are employers afraid that a woman will go on maternity leave or will take sick leave for children? Do they try to compensate for possible losses by giving her a lower salary?

It’s a more complex problem. The wage gap is a remnant of the past. Years ago, women had to fight for the opportunity to work. Therefore, they agreed to lower wages. In Great Britain and France, even in the 1960s, there were official pay tables – separate for men and women. Women’s income was viewed as an added value. It was the man who earned money for the family, the woman could earn extra money to contribute to the household budget or have money for her own expenses, as they used to say: for high heels. In the past, the differences in wages were also somehow justified, because women were less educated.

For a long time, however, they have been better educated than men, and the wage gap has not disappeared. And most employers do not check whether there is a wage gap between their male and female employees. When I talk to employers, they claim that there is no such problem in their companies. When I ask how they know this, it turns out that this certainty is only a deep conviction. Hence the draft act of the Congress of Women, assuming the obligation for employers to check whether there is a wage gap in their workplaces, and if so, to look for ways to bridge it.

However, you are right that employers often try to shift the blame for the existence of the gap to women. I remember a research project in which employers said that women, even during an interview when asked about their expected earnings, had lower expectations than men. Employers therefore fulfil their wishes. It is the cultural knowledge of women, however, that speaks in favour of modifying expectations for fear that they will not get a job at all. They realise that if an employer has a woman and a man who expect similar earnings, he or she will choose a man. Therefore, women’s bargaining chip is consent to lower wages.

Knowingly exploiting or discriminating against women does occur, but there are many more cases resulting from unawareness. It is easy to eliminate this problem, but employers are a bit afraid of it. They are convinced that they do not discriminate against anyone and they function well in that belief.

Women who do not demand higher salaries are subject to the so-called impostor syndrome consisting in belittling one’s achievements due to lack of self-confidence. Men with similar education and experience do not hesitate to promote their strengths.

One of the reasons is raising girls to be modest, obedient people. They are taught that others can praise them, but they shouldn’t do it themselves. Therefore, women more often say that they managed to do something, that they were lucky. They don’t emphasise that they were great, that they did great.

Unfortunately, other people talk and write about women in a similar way. There are studies showing that the press presents the sports successes of women and men in a completely different way. In the case of men, their own merits are emphasised, in the case of women – the merits of the staff. Let’s take Polish tennis players. Have you heard anything about Hubert Hurkacz’s staff? I haven’t. However, the staff of Iga Świątek is still being written about.

The provisions of the “Polish order”, which are to enter into force next year, say that it will be possible to demand information from the boss about the average earnings of employees of the opposite sex performing similar duties. The employer will also have to justify the amount of the salary upon the employee’s request.

That would be at least a half a step forward.

How has the pandemic affected the wage gap?

Analyses of the Congress of Women show that the gap itself has not changed. On the other hand, feminised professions have suffered greatly. For example, the teaching profession has always been poorly paid. We are currently recording massive outflow of teachers from schools. Teachers choose early retirement, which will be very low. Other feminised industries also suffered: restaurant, hairdressing and cosmetic services. Nurses, on the other hand, were at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus, but they were underestimated. During the protests of representatives of the medical professions, the public is made aware of how little they earn and how much they were overloaded with work, because they look after up to 40 patients.

Importantly, these professions are feminised not because women have taken all the seats and don’t let men in, but because men are not keen on such difficult and poorly paid professions.

Programs such as 500 plus or Family Caring Capital, under which from next year you will be able to get 12 thousand zlotys for the second and subsequent children, also make women more likely to go part-time or quit their jobs.

Recently, many Polish women have withdrawn from the labour market. They are mainly young mothers and 50+ women going into early retirement. And we are a country with low female employment rates in general. This is a very disturbing trend.

According to Eurostat data, with the next children in the family, women’s wages decrease, and men’s earnings increase by an average of 6%.

Meanwhile, there is a lot of research on the fact that women, whose position at work is not reduced when they care for children, are very loyal employees. They do the same amount of work as before, only spread it out flexibly. Unlike many men, women do not leave to work elsewhere after acquiring certain skills. They feel connected with the employer who has opened up to their needs at an important moment in their lives.

I always emphasise that people have children – not only mothers. Lawmakers and employers should take this into account.

An additional two-month paid paternity leave, which cannot be transferred to the child’s mother, is to be introduced next year. Will this make bosses aware that daddies can also leave work?

Data from other countries show that getting men to take such leave is a very slow process. But it is good that it begins, after all, parents have been able to share part of the leave after the birth of a child for several years. Now the legislator goes one step further by introducing leave that will be forfeited if the father doesn’t take it.

However, I would not expect immediate effects. I did research on men who looked after young children at home. The employers found it bizarre, asking if there was anything wrong with the wife. A situation must become commonplace before it can be accepted without surprise.

After the birth of my son, I shared half of my parental leave with my husband. I was happy, but my friends were surprised: “You’re wasting six months off in favour of your husband? You’re a loser”.

It’s an individual matter. Some women react like this, but others would like their husband to swap with them, but are unable to convince them. I remember research in which men said that after the arrival of a child they ran away to work as quickly as possible and would never ever want to replace their wife at home.

My husband was delighted. To this day, he looks back on that time with nostalgia.

This is an example that everyone should do as they want. It is not the state that should decide for us who takes care of the child, the elderly or the sick. It should be a joint decision in the relationship. Unfortunately, it is not people who decide about it, but their earnings. Since statistically men earn more, they do not want to take time off for a child so as not to expose themselves to their boss and lose their job. The family budget would suffer more than if a woman lost her job. A vicious circle is going on.

Experts estimate that if the wage gap was closed and the wages of Polish women increased to the level of men’s wages, it would fuel the economy.

But for employers, simple savings here and now counts more. The problem will become even more apparent in a few years, when the already enormous differences in pensions between men and women will increase.

Prof. Małgorzata Fuszara -  lawyer and sociologist. Co-founder of Gender Studies at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences of the University of Warsaw. Expert of the Council of Europe on mainstreaming gender equality in political and social activities. In the years 2014-15, the government plenipotentiary for equal treatment. Chairwoman of the Congress of Women

Author: Magdalena Warchala-Kopeć

The text was published in „Wolna Sobota” a magazine of „Gazeta Wyborcza” on 18 September 2021