Female finances: Gender Wage Gaps and Gender Assets Gaps

Abstract

The size and source of the gender wage gap in Britain has been well researched. Women's typically lower status employment and their reduced, discontinuous career profiles when they have caring responsibilities have combined seriously to damage their ability to earn a decent wage. Such marked gender differences in employment patterns produce a substantial gender gap in levels of wealth too, yet despite this there has been less attention paid to the gendering of assets than there has to gender differentials in earnings and income. So to pull out these multi-dimensional effects of a gender disadvantaged labour market, this article explores the extent of wage and assets inequality in Britain in the mid 1990s. Analysis of the Family Resources Survey shows that women continue to have lower incomes than men even with their increased entry to the labour market, and have fewer chances to build up a safety net of savings in their working lives and a good income for their retirement. It would seem that in a future Britain where individuals will increasingly depend on private pensions rather than a state minimum, even if women continue to increase their participation levels, the poverty they face in old age will persist.

The Snowballing Penalty Effect: Multiple Disadvantage and Pay

“…Most of the trusted data on discrimination in pay are of the single-axis variety. The gender pay gap in the UK and elsewhere is well documented (Dex, Ward and Joshi, 2008;Smithson et al, 2004;Warren, Rowlingson and Whyley, 2001;Wass and McNabb, 2006), The median hourly pay gap between men and women in the UK stands at 19.5% (ONS, 2011). The gap is smaller for women working full-time at 9.1% (ONS, 2011) and at an all-time low, but much higher (34.5%) (Perfect, 2011), for women working part-time.…”

Examining the gender wealth gap

“…According to Warren et al 2001 any disadvantage in net worth is partly the result of lower female labor force participation The standard pattern is a continuous full-time labor market attachment for male breadwinners, while women tend to have part-time work arrangements (including potential wage penalties; see Bardasi and Gornick, 2008), often with more diversified work histories due to child bearing and child rearing and more frequent job changes (Berger and Denton, 2004).…”

Working part‐time: achieving a successful ‘work‐life’ balance?1

“…Low wages and being financially over-dependent both have financial risks attached to them; in the medium and longer terms women's own financial security can be weakened. First, the low paid are less likely to be able to build up a cushion of financial savings in their own right (Warren, Rowlingson and Whyley 2001). Since being able to save is an almost 'universal aspiration', largely for the sense of security it affords (Collard, Kempson and Whyley 2001), and since long-term financial security and being able to manage financially day-to-day are key areas of anxiety for the financially excluded (Kempson and Whyley 1999), then being unable to put money aside denotes a highly vulnerable financial position.…”