1. Urve Kask Statistics Estonia
Increased availability of gender pay gap statistics – overview of the project and completed works
Urve Kask
Statistics Estonia

2. General information on the project “Increased availability of gender pay gap statistics”
A sub-project of the Norwegian support programme for 2009–2014 on “Promoting gender equality and work and family life balance”
Project promoter: Statistics Estonia
Implementation period: 25 March 2013 – 31 December 2015
Cost: 227,762 euros
Information on the project can be found on the website of Statistics Estonia at
Urve Kask

3. Nature of the problem
Information on the pay gap of men and women is currently available in the public database of Statistics Estonia:
The latest data cover the year 2010.
The customer (Ministry of Social Affairs) is not satisfied with the availability of pay gap data.
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4. Background – current situation
The Structure of Earnings Survey, coordinated by Eurostat
Every four years;
Survey of economic units and employees within economic units (sex, education, occupation, area of activity, wage, working hours);
Data are published with a long delay (e.g., the indicators of the survey planned for 2014 will be available for use in the first half of 2016);
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5. Background – current situation
Customer’s dissatisfaction – data are no longer relevant at the time when they are published;
Eurostat Task Force – for upgrading and simplifying the survey.
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6. Background – current situation
Addition of the October part to the existing wage survey
Would enable faster publication of data, which would be available on annual basis;
Is not personified, with a small number of indicator (gender, pay, working hours);
Increases the administrative burden on economic units (additional data collection).
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7. Objective of the project (1)
Upgrade gender pay gap statistics and ensure the possibility of annual monitoring.
How:
Create an integrated source database – based on existing data, inclusion of administrative data sources. The database is personified, i.e., data are linked through an identifier (based on personal identification code to enable linking of different databases).
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8. Objective of the project (2)
The following databases should be used:
a) Labour Force Survey; b) Tax and Customs Board data on work income; c) data of the 2011 census; d) data from the Structure of Earnings Survey of 2014 (if personal identification codes can be added) and other datasets as necessary.
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9. Objective of the project (3)
The objective of the source database:
Enable annual monitoring of gender pay gap through various background indicators;
Enable preparation of indicators for monitoring the development plans and strategies on labour market equality of men and women.
Research – in-depth analyses for studying the nature of gender pay gap.
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10. Objective of the project (4)
Create a separate section on gender equality on the Social Life - Labour market pages of the website of Statistics Estonia ( to enable annual monitoring of the gender wage gap and other main indicators, which would provide an adequate picture of the state of equal opportunities of men and women in the labour market.
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11. Works and activities planned in the project framework:
Development of methodology for gender pay gap surveys
1) The methodology of creating the source database
2) Selection of indicators. Which indicators are required to obtain an adequate picture of gender equality in the labour market?
The methodology of calculating the indicators;
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12. Works and activities planned in the project framework:
Development of methodology for gender pay gap surveys (2)
Expected results:
A methodological summary to be published on the website of Statistics Estonia in methodology and labour market sections: and
Final result: an integrated database on 2000 (2004) – 2012, which will be updated annually and will serve as the basis for calculations of gender pay gap;
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13. Works and activities planned in the project framework:
Continuation of the previous analyses concerning gender pay gap (planned procurement)
1) Regression analysis – analysing the causes and nature of the pay gap to ensure continuation of previous studies;
2) Development of the analytical method (or implementation of an additional model) to enable a more in-depth analysis of the nature and impact factors of the pay gap.
Expected result:
An analytical publication to be published on the website of Statistics Estonia at as well as under the thematic section
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14. Works and activities planned in the project framework:
Compilation of additional indicators for annual monitoring
1) Organise a discussion with the customers to map the need for additional indicators (incl. their publication frequency) and their publication in the database of Statistics Estonia.
2) Prepare a list of additional indicators, including the methodology for each indicator and the frequency of publication.
3) Calculate the additional indicators and, if possible, make retrospective calculations (depending on the possibilities offered by available data sources).
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15. Works and activities planned in the project framework:
Expected results:
Implementation of additional indicators for measuring gender pay gap (equality), determination of the frequency of monitoring for each indicator, composition of methodology and algorithms for the indicators.
An analysis and publication of the implemented additional indicators in the public database of Statistics Estonia
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16. Works and activities planned in the project framework:
Information meetings for customers
1) Kick-off workshop of the project – 16 October 2013
2) Working meetings on different subject areas (as required, )
3) Concluding workshop for presentation of the achieved results and analyses in the fourth quarter of 2015
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17. Completed activities:
The pages presenting the project Increased availability of gender pay gap statistics (in Estonian and in English) have been added to the website of Statistics Estonia
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18. Completed activities:
The project has been presented at an information workshop of the Ministry of Social Affairs (12 June 2013)
The project has been presented to the Research Council on Population and Social Statistics ( )
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19. Completed activities:
A kick-off workshop has been conducted on 16 October 2013
approximately 50 participants.
The kick-off workshop comprised three sessions:
The first session presented the sub-projects to be implemented in the framework of the Norwegian support programme for 2009–2014 on “Promoting gender equality and work and family life balance”, provided an overview of the project “Increased availability of gender pay gap statistics” and the works completed for this project.
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20. Completed activities:
The second session was dedicated to the Necessity of measuring pay gaps in society – to map the needs of the customers and data usages. The invited presenters included representatives of the ministries, politicians and a trade union representative.
The third session: Previous studies – the main conclusions Presentations by the representatives of research institutions(Centar; Tallinn University, University of Tartu)
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21. Work in progress: Methodological work:
Validation of the wage indicator and working hours data of the Labour Force Survey – to obtain an overview of the quality of the data and the possibility of using these indicators in the source database and raising the quality of the indicators through additional databases;
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22. Work in progress:
Validation of output indicators on the basis of the Labour Force Survey – identification of output indicators that could be calculated on the basis of the Labour Force Survey but have not been regularly produced before; determination of input parameters for the source database and possibilities for raising the quality of the parameters through additional databases;
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23. Work in progress:
Re-personification of the Labour Force Survey databases ( ) to produce identifiers, which would enable linking with other databases (the identifiers will be compiled on the basis of personal identification codes);
Identification of the necessary parameters for compilation of work income data on the basis of social tax data of the Tax and Customs Board;
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24. Work in progress:
Linking the Labour Force Survey data with the data of the Tax and Customs Board and a personified analysis of the wage parameter on the basis of two data sources (determining the degree of overlap, difference, etc.).
Expected result:
A methodological analysis: e-publication (to be published on the website in April/May 2014)
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25. Work in progress:
Preparation of the procurement for the execution of analysis – the procurement is planned for December 2013 or January 2014
Establishing a working group of main customers and mapping the parameters of the source database, with three planned meetings (November 2013, January 2014 and March 2014).
Expected result:
Determination and approval of the parameters of the source database by March 2014.
Urve Kask

26. Thank you!

27.
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