Ines Stilling recently headed the department for social policy in the Chamber of Labour. Before that she was Minister for Women in the government of experts and General Secretary in the Ministry of Social Affairs. There are many reasons why poverty is still female.
It starts with income. “We need more transparency within the companies,” says Stilling. It is not just regarding the differences between the salaries of women and men, which according to Statistics Austria are still 18.7 percent in Austria (EU average: 13 percent). Transparency would also lead to more discussions in companies as to whether it is permissible for an assistant to earn significantly less than a manager. Not only are women in Austria less likely to hold higher positions, they are also more likely to be found in low-paid sectors such as nursing or childcare.
Christine Mayerhuber, social expert at WIFO, also sees the problem in the fact that women work in poorly paid areas. “Job evaluation builds on the industrial system. Services are valued lower than activities of machines.” The transparency problem in Austria is enormous. You don’t know how much you would earn in the same position at another company.
In many cases, women also work part-time, which reduces their income and consequently their pension. Mayerhuber sees part-time work as a “success story”. In Austria, because of the traditional family image, women’s opportunities on the labor market were limited for a long time. Today, Austria is ninth in the EU with 68.1 percent of the workforce (EU average: 63.4 percent).
The low income means that women have to make do with less money when they retire. In the government agreement, there is a proposal for pension splitting – men and women share their pension entitlements while they are raising children. “The splitting is nice anyway, but it won’t solve the problem. It’s like a band-aid, but the wound of old-age poverty underneath doesn’t go away,” says Stilling. Mayerhuber sees it similarly: Such a regulation would apply to today’s young mothers and fathers. Such a measure would only have an impact on pensions in decades.
Come to the OÖN Women’s Day on Friday, March 3rd. Registration is not required.
Annette Gantner
