Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Hilde Bojer
www.folk.uio.no/hbojer
hilde.bojer@econ.uio.no
June 22, 2012
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Introduction
An empirical analysis of Norwegian women’s incomes:
Their incomes relative to men’s incomes
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Introduction
An empirical analysis of Norwegian women’s incomes:
Their incomes relative to men’s incomes
Inequality
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Introduction
An empirical analysis of Norwegian women’s incomes:
Their incomes relative to men’s incomes
Inequality
Shares of income
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Introduction
An empirical analysis of Norwegian women’s incomes:
Their incomes relative to men’s incomes
Inequality
Shares of income
Income by age groups
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Data
The data are all from the income surveys of Statistics Norway,
based on income tax returns.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Data
The data are all from the income surveys of Statistics Norway,
based on income tax returns.
For the period 1970 – 1992 they are sample surveys of quality
increasing with the years.
From 1993 on they are complete register data, covering the whole
resident adult population of Norway.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Data
The data are all from the income surveys of Statistics Norway,
based on income tax returns.
For the period 1970 – 1992 they are sample surveys of quality
increasing with the years.
From 1993 on they are complete register data, covering the whole
resident adult population of Norway.
Details about the data are give at the end.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Norway is regarded as outstanding with regard to women’s equality.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Norway is regarded as outstanding with regard to women’s equality.
In particular, women’s labour force participation is only slightly
lower than men’s.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Norway is regarded as outstanding with regard to women’s equality.
In particular, women’s labour force participation is only slightly
lower than men’s.
Fertility is among the highest in Europe, approx 1.9 children born
per female.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Norway is regarded as outstanding with regard to women’s equality.
In particular, women’s labour force participation is only slightly
lower than men’s.
Fertility is among the highest in Europe, approx 1.9 children born
per female.
Still, women’s average income is only about 60 per cent of men’s.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Norway is regarded as outstanding with regard to women’s equality.
In particular, women’s labour force participation is only slightly
lower than men’s.
Fertility is among the highest in Europe, approx 1.9 children born
per female.
Still, women’s average income is only about 60 per cent of men’s.
Half of the difference is due to lower average wages, half is due to
women’s part time work.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Labour force participation
Married women started joining the paid labour force sometime in
the 1960s.
Good statistics of labour force participation and incomes are only
available from the 1970s onward.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Labour force participation
Married women started joining the paid labour force sometime in
the 1960s.
Good statistics of labour force participation and incomes are only
available from the 1970s onward.
The 70s were also the years of the greatest change.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Structural changes
Table: Women by occupational status 1970 – 2009
Year
Independent
Employee
Pensioner
Other
1970
1*
25*
17*
57*
1982
2
41
25
32
1992
2
51
33
14
2009
2
52
33
14
The impact on relative incomes is shown in figure 1
Men 09
5
59
25
11
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
1989
1988
1987
1986
1985
1984
1983
1982
1981
1980
1979
1978
1977
1976
1975
1974
1973
1972
1971
1970
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Figure 1: Women’s relative income 1970 – 2009
80
70
60
50
40
All
30
Employees
Pensioners
20
10
0
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Comments
The increase in relative income is due to more women becoming
employees and old age pensioners.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Comments
The increase in relative income is due to more women becoming
employees and old age pensioners.
All Norwegians 67 years and over are entitled to a minimum old
age benefit.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Comments
The increase in relative income is due to more women becoming
employees and old age pensioners.
All Norwegians 67 years and over are entitled to a minimum old
age benefit.
The increase in labour force participation came while there was still
a big shortage of
child care institutions
and before such arrangements as generous paid maternity leave.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Comments
The increase in relative income is due to more women becoming
employees and old age pensioners.
All Norwegians 67 years and over are entitled to a minimum old
age benefit.
The increase in labour force participation came while there was still
a big shortage of
child care institutions
and before such arrangements as generous paid maternity leave.
Paid paternity leave is fairly recent.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Comments
About half of employed Norwegian women work part time.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Comments
About half of employed Norwegian women work part time.
The majority are employed in the caring professions, and in public
service.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Comments
About half of employed Norwegian women work part time.
The majority are employed in the caring professions, and in public
service.
The labour market is strongly segregated by sex,
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Comments
About half of employed Norwegian women work part time.
The majority are employed in the caring professions, and in public
service.
The labour market is strongly segregated by sex,
but there is reason to believe that women are in typically female
professions,
and work part time,
from choice.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Women and men have different sources of income,
in particular, capital income mainly accrues to men.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Women and men have different sources of income,
in particular, capital income mainly accrues to men.
The large increases, and fluctuations in, capital income explain the
fluctuations in relative income
and income inequality during the 2000’s
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Women’s and men’s share of income 2009 by income
category
100 %
90 %
80 %
70 %
60 %
50 %
Women
Men
40 %
30 %
20 %
10 %
0%
Gross Income
Earnings
Capital income
TransfersA
Child benefit
Total income
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Income inequality
Income inequality is computed for women and men separately.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Income inequality
Income inequality is computed for women and men separately.
The inequality measure used is the Generalised Entropy Measure
with parameter 0.5.
The GEM = 0 for complete equality, but has no fixed upper limit.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Income inequality
Income inequality is computed for women and men separately.
The inequality measure used is the Generalised Entropy Measure
with parameter 0.5.
The GEM = 0 for complete equality, but has no fixed upper limit.
It is additively group decomposable:
Total inequality is weighted sum of within-group inequalities plus
between-group inequality.
This property makes it easy to interpret the connection between
inequality and structural changes.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Income inequality women 1970–2009
1,4
1,2
1
0,8
All W
Employees
Pensioners
0,6
0,4
0,2
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Income inequality women and men 1984–2009
0,500
0,450
W
0,400
0,350
0,300
0,250
M
0,200
0,150
0,100
0,050
0,000
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Income by age
The last graph is designed to show structural differences between
men’s and women’s
income profile by age
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Income by age
The last graph is designed to show structural differences between
men’s and women’s
income profile by age
as well as the impact of child benefit
The blue line shows gross income + child benefit
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Women’s and men’s income by age group 2009
600000
M
500000
400000
W
300000
200000
100000
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
The data
For 1970, 73, 76, 79: Income surveys of about 4000 households.
Persons with no income not included.
Basic computations carried out by statistics Norway.
Author’s own computations for all other years.
For 1982 and 1984 – 1992: Income surveys of a steadily increasing
number of households, covering the whole population. Data
provided by Norwegian Social Science Data Services.
For 1993 – 2009: Register data for the whole population, provided
by Statistics Norway with the permission of the Norwegian data
protection official for research.
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Inequality measure
The Generalised Entropy Measure:


α
X
Yj
1
1
I (α) =
− 1
α(α − 1) n
m
j
Here, Yj stands for the income of person j.
The version used here is with parameter = 0.5, which gives the
same ordering as the more well known Gini coefficient.
(1)
Women’s Income in Norway 1970–2009
Some references
I
Bojer, Hilde (2003), Distributional Justice. Theory and
measurement, Routledge
I
Bojer, Hilde (2008), ‘Income inequality and the economic
position of women in Norway 1970 – 2002’ in Gianni Betti
and Achille Lemmi (Eds): Advances on Income Inequality and
Concentration measures, Routledge