Wage differences between men and women 1997-2006

Women earn less than men. No matter how the concept of pay is defined, wage differences between men and women have remained almost unchanged over the past ten years.
With this report, the Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI) provides register-based wage analyses, which can form an objective basis for the equal-pay debate. The report illustrates wage differences between men and woman in the period 1997-2006. Analyses are carried out on wage differences in the labour market as a whole and in individual sectors (private sector, municipalities and central government).
Analyses show that the reason behind the majority of the pay differences between the two sexes is that men and women have different job functions. Length of education and work experience only play a minor role. Analyses also show that these factors explain a decreasing proportion of the wage differences over time.
This report is an updated and extended version of a previous report on the pay of men and women; an analysis of the wage gap covering 1997-2001 and published in 2004. An extra wage concept was used as a novelty in this report; i.e. basic wages levels including pensions and perks.