The average monthly salary in 2012 was NIS 10,953 for men compared to NIS 7,244 for women – meaning women earned 66.1 percent of the average male salary. These figures were taken from a Central Bureau of Statistics  (CBS) report released on Tuesday ahead of International Woman’s Day. The rate of labor force participation of women aged 15 and up was 58.2% in 2013, compared to 69.4% for men; whereby the percentage of women employed full-time (35 hours or more) was 66.7%, compared to 86.6% of men. Furthermore, according to the findings, in 2012, 51.4% of salaried employees were men and 48.6% were women.

International Woman’s Day rally in Nazareth (Photo: Al Ittihad)

Part of the reason for the wage gap, the report states, is that men worked an average of 44.9 hours a week, compared to 35.8 hours worked by women. Men earned an average of NIS 57.9 per hour, compared to NIS 48.9 for women.

In 2013, 96,000 women worked in hi-tech, accounting for 35.6% of all workers, the report also said. In Israel, throughout his capitalist economy, men were twice as likely to be managers as women (67.4% to women’s 32.6%). About a third of all women worked in “traditionally female occupations” such as nursing, retail sales, bookkeeping, teaching, and as secretaries. Women comprised about two-thirds of all workers in those fields.

The Knesset Research and Information Center compiled a report released by the Committee for the Advancement of Women and Gender Equality ahead of a Conference for the Economic Empowerment of Women on Tuesday. The report drew upon the statistics from the CBS report, as well as figures from the National Insurance Institute and past Knesset reports.

According to the findings, among pension recipients who received more than NIS 7,500 a month, some 70% were men and some 30% women. In contrast, among pensioners who received less than NIS 3,000 a month, some 70% were women, and some 30% men. The Knesset report revealed statistics from a 2012 National Insurance Institute report showing that poverty rates among women were higher than among men. Following taxes and transfer payments the gaps greatly narrowed, though the incidence of poverty among women remained 1.5% greater on average than among men.

The findings indicated that among the main working ages of 30 to 60 years old, following taxes and transfer payments there was almost no difference in the incidence of poverty among men and women. However, when comparing the over 60 age group, there was a marked increase in the poverty gap between men and women, especially in the over 70 age group, where the poverty rate among women was 4% higher (following taxes and transfer payments) than among men.