Israel's gender wage gap is greater than the gender wage gaps in 35 of the 38 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, according to a review by Prof. Dan Ben-David and Prof. Ayal Kimhi.
“While gender wage gaps are closing in developed countries, the gaps in Israel are some of the highest in the developed world and bigger than what they were a decade and a half ago,” said Ben-David, the president and founder of the Shoresh Institution for Socioeconomic Research.
According to the study, the median monthly income of women in Israel between 2021 and 2023 was just 76.9% of that of men.
The authors stressed that in six OECD countries, women made over 95% of men’s monthly median wage, highlighting that in Belgium, women’s median monthly wage is 98.9% of men’s.
They also said that while the average gender wage gap of OECD countries is closing with time, Israel’s has grown over the last 15 years.
The gender wage gaps grew significantly as women had children and took on more household responsibilities, and their wages decreased, according to Ben-David and Kimhi.
This is especially true for women in the Arab sector, they added.
Jewish Israeli men wages increasing
Alongside the decrease in women’s wages after they had children, men’s wages increased after they had children – especially among Jewish Israeli men. This impacts the couple’s career decision-making. Overall, as a woman had more children, her salary decreased, according to the institution’s data.
Another factor impacting the wage gap is education. The institution said that women in Israel tend to study math and computer science less, so they do not acquire an education that leads to higher-paying jobs.
“Closing wage gaps requires encouraging math and science studies among women, improving the early education system to support working mothers, [and] encouraging paternity leave to advance joint parenting,” Kimhi and Ben-David said.