Official data: In Kosovo women are paid more than men

Although struggling women manage to secure a job on the Kosovo market, despite educational qualifications and work experience, according to official data, women are recently said to be paid more for their work compared to men.

The latest report published by the Kosovo Statistics Agency (ASK) says that “net salaries of most employees in Kosovo, in the second quarter of this year, were between 400 and 500 euros a month and that gender differences were observed with 5.2 percent higher in women than in men”.

According to this report, only 12 percent of women work.

Those who enjoy a workplace work mainly in the education, trade, health and public administration sectors.

Among the women working is Behija, who has been working in public administration for seven years. She says she pays for about 400 euros, but in the sector she works in, according to her, there are cases that men are paid more, regardless of education.

I work in public institutions, the salary is not good compared to the living standard. But, I think regardless of the qualifications, men are raised to better and normal positions paid more”, Behija says.

Women “usurp” employment in education and health

But, Florije Gashi is a lawyer by profession and is unemployed. It shows it has applied in many competitions announced by public institutions, but has failed to secure a job.

I've competed almost all the competitions I've seen, but I haven't succeeded. Similarly, to secure a job, you must have a reputation at the relevant institution. I need jobs in order to contribute to the family budget, because with a salary in the family, we can't meet the necessary demands”, Gashi says.

On the other hand, representatives of nongovernmental organisations dealing with women's rights do not consider women paid more in Kosovo than men do.

Luljeta Demolli, from the Kosovar Centre for Gender Studies, tells Radio Free Europe, that in the Kosovo market, specifically in the private sector, there are large numbers of non-legal employees who are mostly male.

She even says that even high unemployment rates among women do not allow women to have higher pay rates than men.

There are no differences in salaries in the public sector. Women who are employed in the private sector, on the other hand, are mainly as salesmen in various stores. Even here is almost a fixed salary, but that men most work in the construction sector, no job contracts, and we don't know their number”, Demolli explains.

In contrast, researchers at the “Riinvest” Institute do not provide any assessment regarding the ASC report, but taking into account the situation in the employment market and the high unemployment rate among women, suspect women can get paid more.

Dobranja Day, advanced researcher in this Institute, tells Radio Free Europe that women who are incubated in the labour market and have a level of physical schooling, are paid more than other women, but not with men who have the same level of schooling.

Women who are locked in the labour market are employed, a very good portion of them have tercirary schooling and may have higher salaries, but that does not mean they have higher salaries than men who have tecriar schooling. The comparison for salaries should be made for the same or similar equal work”, Dobranja says.

The Institute “invest “) last year has published a report “Grate on the labour market”, which says that “from the overall percentage of employed women, 54 percent of them are employed in the private sector and 41 percent in the public sector”.

This report says that women employed in the public sector believe in 78 percent of cases that they are paid the same amount as men for the same job and 8 percent do not believe they are paid equally.

But in the private sector, only 51 percent of women believe that they are paid the same as men in the same position, while 19 percent are sure that men are paid more for the same job.