By NIV ELIS
Women’s wages in the public sector are considerably lower than men’s, a report released Sunday showed.According to the annual Wage Supervisor’s Report on Public Sector Salaries, which releases data on government employee wages a year after the fact, a 24 percent pay gap existed between men and women on government payrolls in 2011. Although the tax code, which favors women, narrowed the gender gap significantly, the post-tax final take-home pay difference between men and women remained hefty at 15%.“There is a lot of room for improvement,” says Kobi Amsalem, the wage supervisor at the Ministry of Finance. The reason for the disparity is not simple wage discrimination, he is quick to add. Instead, it reflects the fact that fewer women occupy high-ranking positions on government payrolls. Men are also far more likely than women to work overtime.The data in the report covers the calendar year of 2011 only, and does not reflect a slew of agreements reached between the Treasury and various working groups such as nurses, social workers, and doctors, which were either signed in 2012 or had not yet come into full force in 2011.
Anti-Israel activists vandalize Texas congressman's office door
