this means that some of the difference can be explained by observable characteristics such as differences in education choice of study field employment history eg interruptions due to child care when analysing the gender pay gap or professional experience in this regard while the pay gap is a useful measure to the difference of earnings between groups it is less useful for understanding the underlying reasons for which the gap exists discrimination being only one possible explanation since means are sensitive to extreme values users are also encouraged to also analyse median earnings and make note of any differences between a computation of the indicator based on mean and median earnings