Women are more likely to apply for lower-paid jobs

Newly hired women earn less than men in the same job and with similar qualifications. According to a study by the Nuremberg Institute for Labor and Occupational Research (IAB), almost half of this wage gap can be explained by job application behavior: Women therefore apply less often to companies with higher wages and more often to companies with lower wages.

“Their application rate at high-wage companies was more than 25 percentage points lower than that of men”, IAB researcher Benjamin Lochner explained Monday. “At the ten percent of companies with the lowest wages, an average of about 55 percent women and 45 percent men applied.”

The study cites flexibility requirements, which usually increase with wages, as a major reason for this imbalance. Well-paid jobs therefore often require longer travel times to the workplace, more flexibility in working hours, more frequent business travel and changing workplaces – and the higher the flexibility requirements, the greater the proportion of men among the applicants. According to the ILO, mothers suffer the greatest income loss compared to men and women without children.

A better combination of work and family, for example through more flexible working models and more childcare options, as well as a fairer division of care work between both parents, could increase individual flexibility, which in turn could have a positive effect on job application behavior and the earning potential,” emphasized Lochner. (saw/sda/afp)