Could thyroid disease be contributing to the gender pay gap?
Undiagnosed thyroid disease could result in a wage loss of up to 5% for women
Last updated 25th May 2022
A study released by the University of Aberdeen shows that undiagnosed thyroid disease could result in a wage loss of up to 5% for women, whilst not impacting a mans pay whatsoever.
One in 20 people in the UK are believed to have a thyroid problem, whilst women are six times more likely to suffer from the condition than men.
A sample taken between 2009 and 2018 by the UK Household Longitudinal Survey estimated the gender pay gap to be around 13%, though that increases to 18% if a woman suffers with undiagnosed thyroid disease, particularly hypothyroidism.
"Our findings have two very strong implications", says key investigator in the project, Professor Alexandros Zangelidis.
"The first one is that it highlights the important the importance of being tested for thyroid dysfunctions, but also hypothyroid as it amplifies existing gender wage gaps."
Symptoms of hypothyroid tend to remain prevalent in women for longer than men, which can have an impact on long-term productivity.
One of the reports key findings is, however, that if thyroid disease is diagnosed and treated, wages of women shouldn't be impacted.
"The the study suggests that a timely intervention can help to address, at least to some extent, this gender disparities that we see in the labour market", added Professor Zangelidis.
"What we find is that once the condition is diagnosed, and hence we assume that treatment begins, we see that there is an improvement in wages.
"Female individuals manage to recover those wage losses and in fact we see that, progressively, wages improve.