In May 2003, the Insurance Employers’ Association and the Union of Insurance Employees in Finland published a third joint report on gender equality in the Finnish insurance sector. The report, finds that female clerical employees’ monthly wages were 25% lower on average than those of their male colleagues in the sector in 2001. About three-quarters of this difference can be explained by differences in men’s and women’s background factors (such as age, education, and work tasks), while around a quarter of the gender wage differential remains unexplained.
Gender wage gaps and equality plans are systematically monitored in the Finnish insurance sector. On 23 May 2003, the Insurance Employers’ Association (Vakuutusalan Työnantajayhdistys) and the Union of Insurance Employees in Finland (Vakuutusväen Liitto, VvL) published a joint report on gender equality, the third of its kind. It analyses the position of clerical employees in the sector, of whom 74% are women. According to the report, in 2001 women’s monthly wages were on average 25% lower than men’s. The overall gender wage gap has remained at the same level for 10 years, and has even slightly increased during the past few years. Collective agreements have not been able to change this situation. In most cases the gender equality increments that have been agreed in collective agreements have been evenly distributed to all employees, which has not narrowed the existing gender wage gaps. In 2001, there were 12,600 employees in the insurance sector, of whom 11,000 were clerical employees.
The gender wage gap is seen as being divided into two components: the component that can be explained by differences in women’s and men’s background characteristics such as age, education, and work tasks; and the component that remains unexplained. The unexplained component is often seen as measuring the amount of gender discrimination. The insurance sector analysis finds that about 19 percentage points of the gender wage gap can be explained by differences in men’s and women’s background factors, while 6 percentage points remains unexplained.
According to the report, the most important single factor affecting clerical employees’ wages is the pay system that divides wages into different categories depending on the job requirement level and experience of employees. About 90% of employees whose wages are defined in this way are women. There is less information on men’s job requirement levels and their effect on gender wage equality.
The report makes three recommendations:
- the next gender equality report will be based on data from 2004;
- in the next bargaining round, the insurance sector collective agreement will be subjected to 'gender mainstreaming'; and
- insurance companies will study their own performance on gender equality issues by comparing the findings in the report with their own situation.