The ECB’s experience shows that a specific strategy to foster diversity can generate tangible benefits in the form of a better gender balance. In 2010, the ECB’s Executive Board implemented a marked shift in policy towards diversity by issuing a public statement and launching a diversity action plan. The action plan was supplemented in 2013 with explicit gender targets for the entire ECB hierarchy. The gender gap in the probability of promotion declined notably after the strategy was launched. Entry-level economists typically join the ECB at the age of 30, many of them with a PhD. They usually enter the ECB at the expert level (salary band F/G) and subsequently progress to the principal economist level (salary band H) and adviser level (salary band I). The salary bands above adviser level are for heads of division and senior management. To move to a higher salary band, economists must submit an application and be selected in a promotion campaign. 4  The study shows that the average difference between economist-level starting salaries for men and women in the period 2003-2017 was small: just over 1%.2 However, the gender wage gap widens notably over time, reaching more than 7% after ten years.3 For moves within the same salary band, however, the differences are minimal (see righthand panel). This indicates that the divergence between men's and women's salaries is primarily related to the probability of promotion over time.
7  The average gender wage gap is a commonly used measure to summarise gender differences in career progression. In recent years, this gap has stood at 17% at the Banco de España (black bar), i.e. the average wage of male members of staff is 17% higher than that of female members. This is the raw gap and could therefore be due to differences in staff’s individual characteristics causing wage differences. The gap narrows from 17.2% to 8.4% when factoring in demographic characteristics (grey bar). Family situation lies behind a portion of this difference. The gap closes to 7.9% if we factor in marital status and parenthood (blue bar). Adding in characteristics such as years of experience and area of activity narrows the gap further to 6.8% (red bar). Taking professional group into consideration, the gap closes completely (green bar). Yet it is important to take into account that, unlike the other individual characteristics that we can assume to be exogenous, an employee’s career history has a significant bearing on their professional group. Once staff members’ individual characteristics have been factored in, a significant gap only remains for women with children. In summary, when considering the underlying causes of the gender wage gap, the two usual suspects are in play: parenthood and movements between professional groups (or promotions). In these times, marked by a sense of urgency to find solutions and answers, I believe central banks must spearhead efforts to analyse and address the major challenges facing society and the economy.