7 October 2019

While the gap, unfortunately, still exists, it fell by 5.5%: from 18.8% in 1998 to 13.3% last year.

The report points to changes in occupational distribution of men and women during this period as the main factor leading to smaller gender wage gap. The main occupations that supported this change include law and government services, education sector, business and finance segments.

Such higher paying occupations hired more women last year than back in 1998. In addition to it, earnings in these sectors also grew faster.

According to the study, the gap still exists mainly because of the distribution of women and men across industries and women’s overrepresentation in the sector of part-time work.

Both in 1998 and 2018, women’s overrepresentation in part-time work increased the wage gap. Last year it accounted for 9.2 cents of the 13.3-cent gap and in 1998 it represented 8.9 cents of the 18.8-cent gap.

Meanwhile, more men were hired last year in the sectors of natural and applied sciences and administrative occupations and these segments show higher hourly payments. Moreover, wages also rose faster in these segments.