Wage gap starts early in Netherlands: boys get more pocket money than girl
The gender wage gap in the Netherlands starts even earlier than expected. On average boys get around 2 euros more pocket money than girls, according to a study by financial service provider Deloitte, RTL Nieuws reports.
Deloitte looked at the current pocket money for children between the ages of 10 and 12 years. If their allowance is paid digitally, kids in this age group currently receive an average allowance of 18.56 euros. Boys receive an average of 19.20 euros, and girls 17.94 euros. The difference is even larger if pocket money is paid in cash. Then boys get an average of 14.97 euros, and girls 12.16 euros.
Why this is has never been studied, research institute Nibud said to RTL.
PvdA parliamentarian Lilianne Ploumen, a known advocate for equal wages, calls the difference astonishing. "I don't understand that there is already such a difference between the pocket money of boys and girls", she said to the broadcaster.
"At a later age you see that there is a wage gap of 16 percent between men and women. We thought that was due to the fact that women are worse at negotiating. That seems not to be the case. Women also negotiate, they just get their way less often", Ploumen continued. "The person who is being negotiated with also plays an important role. He thinks: I can give a woman less. Apparently this starts at an early age as girls receive less pocket money than boys."
Ploumen sees a role for schools in fixing this problem. "Schools must make children familiar with money. And start making boys and girls aware of their financial position at a young age."
Financial expert Annemarie van Gaal is also shocked by this difference in spending money. "I would think that girls need more money than boys, for example for makeup and clothing", she said to the broadcaster. She thinks that boys are more tenacious when it comes to negotiating their allowance. "Boys more often feel affected in their egos when they get a euro less than a friend." She calls on parents to be more alert to this problem.
