What is a «maternity penalty»? Can a wife earn more than her husband? Do Russian women like teachers (spoiler — no). The answers to these questions are much more important for society than you think.
Pyotr Sarukhanov/Novaya
Gifts as an indicator of relationships
Only a quarter of Russians plan to please their couple with a gift for Valentine's Day, the research center of the Superjob service found out. 15% of men will bring something good to their wife, 9% to a girlfriend. At the same time, husbands are ready to “on average” spend 2,800 rubles on a gift for their chosen one. Lovers “compensate” for the lack of a formalized relationship with a greater gift value — 3200 rubles.
Women value both of them equally, but much cheaper — they will spend an average of 2,000 rubles on gifts for their men. At the same time, ladies aged 35 to 44 are ready to spend no more than 1,500 rubles, young people value gifts to their companions a little more expensive. However, only every fifth woman is going to give something to a man — 14% will buy something for an official companion and only 6% for an unofficial one.
The significant difference in the price of «male» and «female» gifts is partly due to the fact that Russian women — on average — earn less than men. The gender gap in wages — the difference between the average earnings of men and women, expressed as a percentage of men's earnings — is 27.9% in Russia (according to the survey of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation «The wage gap between men and women», published in March 2021).
That's a lot. In countries with “upper middle income”, which includes Russia, the gap between male and female incomes does not exceed 19%
(according to the report of the International Labor Organization Women in business and management: the business case for change ).
And this gap is the cause of many family conflicts and emotional problems.
The practice of natural selection
But do women manage to push their companions to work achievements? The answer to this question can be found in the most interesting study “Fathers and Sons: “Award” for Paternity in the Russian Labor Market” by economist Alexei Oshchepkov from the HSE Center for Labor Research (HSE Economic Journal. 2020; 24(2): pp. 157–190 .).
Economists drew attention to a serious problem — other things being equal, the “average woman with children under three years of age” in Russia receives a salary 4-6% less than the same “average woman “without children”. This is the so-called «fine for motherhood», a very negative phenomenon in the labor market, which is very worrying for demographers and sociologists. The need for childcare leads to a reduction in a woman's employment and a disproportionate and unfair reduction in her earnings
Photo: Jorg LANGE/DPA/ITAR-TASS
But is there a similar story with the salaries of fathers, economists wondered? It turned out there is! Only fathers are the opposite.
Comparing the salaries of “average” Russian men “with children under three years old” and “men without children” in the period 2000–2018, HSE researchers found that “fathers » consistently earn an average of 25% more than their “childless” peers of equal qualifications. Huge difference.
Maybe it is the birth of a child that motivates a man to work for the good of the family? No, the researchers answer, the hypothesis of a growing industriousness of caring fathers is not supported by statistics. In this case, we are dealing with the “phenomenon of selection by women”, who are initially oriented to enter into relationships with men who are able to pay family expenses if necessary. Women cannot be blamed for this — this is a completely rational model of behavior.
An attempt by employers to save on the wages of women with children turns into the need for men to earn more. In Russia, between the ages of 20 and 40, the gender pay gap widens from 21% to 33% (women earn that much less). And a married couple finds themselves in a “patriarchal model of relations”, when a man is forced to take on heavy workloads, since women’s incomes are obviously not enough.
The price of a family issue
In the fall of 2021, when asked by Rabota.ru analysts about the amount of earnings of their chosen one, women expressed the desire that their man receive an average of 124,000 rubles per month. It is clear that such earnings are now unattainable for most men, but what is important here is people's idea of a «normal» level of income. At the same time, 76% of women said that the size of a man's income is important for relationships. Men are less demanding — only 49% pay attention to the earnings of their partner, and the amount of the desired female salary does not exceed 91,200 rubles.
Here they are, those same 30% of the «gender gap» in wages, one could say economists. You can’t deceive the economy.
At the same time, in families where a woman earns more than a man, conflicts over money arise more often: 38% of women and 43% of men from such families reported financial disagreements to Superjob sociologists in November 2021. steam. True, there are very few such families — only 10% of women admit that they earn more than their companion. Interestingly, the initiator of the «financial conflict» is more often a woman. And, characteristically, women themselves admit this — both when she earns more (52%), and in a union where both earn the same (41%).