Civil service workers face huge gender wage gap

Female German public officials earn almost a fifth less than their male counterparts, according to a new study published in daily Die Welt on Monday.

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The wage gap for the government jobs averaged 18.7 percent, the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) study found.

The difference was particularly stark in middle and high positions, where the difference was 23.2 and 22.6 percent. Meanwhile female judges were found to earn 20.1 percent less than their male colleagues.

“Public employers should be a shining example when it comes to equal treatment of men and women,” DGB vice-head Ingrid Sehrbrock told the paper. Instead, the study showed that the sector was nearly on par with the private employment wage gap average of 23 percent.

According to the study authors, the unequal pay was largely due to the high proportion of part-time female employees. More than half of female civil servants and judges work part time, the study said. Meanwhile 80 percent of public employees who work part time are women.

But full time employees face unequal treatment too. Here women earn an average of 7.7 percent less than men in the same positions, the paper said.