March 8 is International Women's Day. Good thing somebody is celebrating women, because the business sector sure doesn't.

The Industry and Trade Ministry compiled figures ahead of the event and found that women averaged a gross monthly salary of NIS 5,395 in 2005. Men averaged 58 percent more, the ministry found.

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Even after differences in working hours are accounted for, women earn on average 22.5 percent less than men. In 2005, women averaged 35.4 working hours a week, compared with 45.8 for men.

Data obtained from organizations of the self-employed show that in 2005, self-employed men earned on average NIS 6,900 per month while self-employed women averaged just NIS 4,900 per month.

Only 3.2 percent of working women were in management positions, compared with 5.7 percent of men, the study found. As for high-tech, 2.4 percent of the female workforce was part of this relatively high-paying sector, compared with 8.4 percent of men.

The number of working women in the civilian workforce rose to 1.3 million in 2005. The figure has shot up, from 35.7 percent of adult women in 1980 to 50 percent in 2005. Most working women are between 35 and 44 years old.

Among ultra-Orthodox women aged 20 to 64, 56.9 percent were working in 2004, compared with 76.7 percent of non-Haredi women.

Unemployment was 9.5 percent among women in 2005, compared with 8.5 percent among men.

Some 67.8 percent of women with children under age 18 were in the work force in 2005. In comparison, 76.5 percent of women with no children or children over 18 and 62.4 percent of women with children under age 5 were in the work force.

While 75.1 percent of women with one child were in the work force, only 24.4 percent of women with seven or more children were. A total of 90.9 percent of working women have three or fewer children, but women with seven or more children comprise 0.8 percent of the female work force.

While women have made great strides over the past two decades, they are still primarily concentrated in the fields of teaching, clerking, nursing and caregiving. These four fields account for 54.3 percent of all working women, who make up 75 percent of workers in these areas.