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Equal pay elusive in Germany

October 4, 2012

The gap in wages and professional income between women and men in Germany has hardly been closing over the past few years, a new study has found. Surprisingly, unequal pay is prevalent in top jobs.

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Image: Fotolia/ Picture-Factory

On average, German women earned 22 percent less than men in 2010 - the year of reference for an official survey published by Germany's Federal Statistics Office, Destatis, on Thursday.

The figure shows that the gender income gap in Europe's biggest economy has been closing by just 1 percentage point in five years, compared with a previous study made by Destatis in 2006.

Differences were especially striking among business managers, where female managers earn almost a third less than their male counterparts. On average, they earn about 27.64 euros ($35.71) in hourly wages, while men in management positions make 39.50 euros ($51.04) an hour.

Similarly large is the gender wage difference among engineers, standing at about 30 percent. In academic jobs, women earn 28 percent less than men, while crafts businesses pay their female staff 25 percent less on average than their male workers.

Destatis noted that the smallest gap was a 4-percent difference in favor of men in office and administrative jobs.

However, chances for narrowing the gender income gap in Germany might improve, Destatis figures show. The difference in wages and income is especially close among young workers of under 25 years of age, with 2 percent.

The biggest gap exists within the pre-pension age group, in which men make 28 percent more than women.

uhe/tj (AFP, Reuters)