Bank of Israel: Israelis earn less than those in comparable countries
The gap between Israel’s top 10% richest people and those in the top 10% in other countries is smaller than among those in lower earning percentiles.
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMANA bank employee counts Israeli Shekel notes for the camera at a bank branch in Tel Aviv(photo credit: REUTERS)
Israelis make less money per hour than those in most comparable OECD countries, according to a report released Tuesday by the Bank of Israel.The document, prepared by BoI’s Yuval Mazar, is part of a larger study, “Selected Policy Analyses and Research Notes,” which is expected to be released soon. It compares Israel against Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, the United Kingdom, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Slovakia – countries for which there is appropriate data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies survey.The report also looks at the skills and schooling of Israelis commensurate to their wages.The gap between Israel’s top 10% richest people and those in the top 10% in other countries is smaller than among those in lower earning percentiles, the report noted. Furthermore, Israel’s top earners in many cases actually earn more per hour than those in the comparison countries.The skills gap between Israel and other countries at lower wage levels is described as “very wide” by Mazar. He said that this makes skills the dominant factor correlated with wage gaps between Israel and other OECD countries.Women’s wages are more closely correlated with changes in skills compared to their wages in other countries, the report said. In contrast, men’s wages are not as closely correlated. However, men’s skills in Israel are higher comparable to other countries the more they earn.Gaps in schooling are not correlated with wage level, the report found.
