Gender wage gap also exists among freelancers, self-employed

The gender wage gap also exists among freelancers, according to a study by the online bank Knab among 10,000 self-employed people. On average, female freelancers’ hourly rate is lower than that of their male colleagues with the same education and experience. The difference is up to 16 percent, the online bank said in a press release.

The wage gap is the biggest among highly-skilled self-employed. The hourly rate of women with a college or university education is, on average, 13 percent lower than that of their male colleagues doing the same work with similar education and experience.

The IT sector is a positive exception. There the rates are about the same. “That may be explained by the fact that there is a large shortage of women in that sector. Ninety percent of the IT freelancers in the study are men,” researcher Casper Zwart told the newspaper.

Despite the wage gap, women and men are equally satisfied with the hourly rate they earn, the researchers found. “In both groups, 65 percent are happy with their hourly rate. That may mean self-employed women are unaware of this gap,” Zwart said.

A possible explanation for the wage gap is the ability to negotiate the rate. Men generally consider themselves better at these negotiations - almost 60 percent of men think they negotiate well, compared to 40 percent of women. “The rates of men and women who say they negotiate very well are virtually the same,” said Zwart.

According to Knab, freelancers charge the highest rates in the government, business services, and IT. The average rates in these sectors are around 100 euros per hour. The lowest average rate, 49 euros per hour, is in the catering sector.

Self-employed earn an average of around 100,000 euros gross per year. Here, too, there are significant differences between sectors. Freelancers in the highest-charged sectors earn an average of between 120,000 and 140,000 euros gross per year, compared to just over 50,000 euros per year for freelancers in the sports and recreation sector. Zwart added that these gross incomes “exclude all business costs - such as materials, insurance, and pension premiums - and, of course, income tax.”