Men's salaries are still almost 30% higher than women's salaries, even though there is almost no gender difference in education, according to data published by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics for International Women's Day.
The average monthly income among women in Israel in 2013 was NIS 7,280, while the average monthly income among men was NIS 10,683, 31.9% higher. Men's median income was 26.7% higher than women's median income.
Men and women are almost equal in education: both employed men and employed women average 14 years of education. The Central Bureau of Statistics believes that the reason for the income differential is the difference in the average number of weekly hours worked by men and women (45.8 hours for men, 37.1 for women). The different in the average hourly wage earned by men and women is only 14.4%.
The gap is also reflected in the a comparison of work hours: only two thirds (67.3%) of women work full-time (35 hours or more per week), and 32.7% work part-time (less than 35 hours per week), while 86.7% of men work full-time and 13.3% work part-time.
The rate of participation in the labor force among women has risen in recent years, and the gap between men and women in this aspect has narrowed: the proportion of women om the labor force has reached 59.2%, compared with 69.5% among men. There is no significant difference in unemployment between men and women: the unemployment rate for both men and women is 5.9%.
The Central Bureau of Statistics examined not only the gender wage gap, but also the gap within each gender: the difference between the median income and the average income among women was 22.9% among women, compared with 28.3% among men. A lower difference between the median and the average indicates equality and greater concentration within a given group. "It can therefore be concluded that there is less difference in wages among employed women than among employed men," the Central Bureau of Statistics said.
A breakdown of women's employment figures by profession shows that women continue to dominate professions traditionally regarded as female. Women accounted for over two thirds of those employed as geriatric nurses in households, clerks in wholesale and retail businesses, secretaries, accountants, child carers, elementary schoolteachers, teachers' assistants, high school teachers and pre-school teachers. In high tech, on the other hand, women accounted for only 35.5% of employees: 100,000 of the 300,000 employees.
Knesset Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality MK Dr. Aliza Lavie said, "The figures are just one more proof that salary gaps are neither a myth, nor an exceptional phenomenon. They are an evil illness and a moral distortion that I must continue to fight against and eliminate in the next Knesset. I enacted two laws in the previous Knesset for this purpose: the Equal Pay for Workers Law and the Law for Disclosure of Salary Data by Gender for government companies and government ministries. In addition to legislation, further action should be taken to instill values, education, and chances in the labor market through negotiations and agreements."
