Gender pay gaps: mainly the effect of working time and job position

Occupational inequalities between women and men take many forms. Firstly, inequalities in the volume of work, with women working part-time far more often than men. For the youngest, the least qualified, the parents of young children, these inequalities in the volume of work are the main factor influencing the wage income gap.

Added to this are inequalities in salary for the same amount of work, which are low at the beginning of working life but increase throughout a professional career. They are mainly due to the fact that women and men do not work in the same economic sectors and do not hold the same jobs.

The pay gaps between women and men for the same amount of work have been steadily narrowing for forty years. They decreased by a quarter over the last twenty years. Gaps in the volume of work have been also narrowing, but at a slower pace.

Women are likely to have access to the best paid jobs, which explains a large part of the gender pay gap. These inequalities in access to the best paid jobs are particularly high among employees with children, with the result that the pay gap between fathers and mothers is significantly higher than between women and men without children.