Women's pay in temporary employment: Money is also relative

Abstract

"Women are beginning to take on employment more and more in the area of temporary work. By now almost a third of those employed in that sector are female. If one uses gross pay as a measurement, then wages seem at first meagre as they lie well below wages in other branches. However care must be taken in interpreting the facts because women involved in subcontracted work are fundamentally different from women in other branches of the economy. If, in comparing the groups, one differentiates according to personal characteristics, working biography and employment characteristics then about half of the differences in wages can be explained by differences in productivity. Moreover, women involved in temporary work earned a lot less than the comparison group before they took on their jobs in the temporary sector. In addition, there does not seem to be any evidence that a job in the area of temporary work stigmatises women in any way. They do not have to reckon with a drop in pay when they accept employment outside the temporary sector after having been employed on a temporary basis." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Jahn, E. (2009): Frauenlöhne in der Zeitarbeit: Auch Geld ist relativ. In: IAB-Forum No. 1, p. 38-43. DOI:10.3278/IFO0901W038