Before reading this blog post, hazard a guess as to which countries and industries have the largest gender wage gaps. Before we get to the answer, let's explore this concept in a bit of detail.
Understanding the Gender Wage Gap
While the gender wage gap has been decreasing steadily in many parts of the world (notable evidence is the fact that in the UK, it decreased from approximately 50% in 1970 to 17% in 2016), there is yet to come into existence a single country that can boast equality in earnings of men and women.
The main contributing factor to the gender wage gap is that women tend to work in industries that pay less than those that men tend to work in. However, this doesn't offer a full explanation because when comparing the earnings of men and women working in the same industry, the gap persists. This is driven by a variety of factors, including discriminatory practices and parenthood. Age is another factor that has implications for the gender wage gap; amongst older workers, the gap is larger. When men and women begin their careers, they begin on only slightly unequal footing with regard to earnings, but as they progress down the line, the gap widens.
To give a statistical face to these observations: "In 2022, mothers ages 25 to 34 earned 85% as much as fathers that age, but women without children at home earned 97% as much as fathers. In contrast, employed women ages 35 to 44 – with or without children – both earned about 80% as much as fathers."
To differentiate between the two different types of gender wage gaps, researchers refer to the overall difference in earnings between the genders as the uncontrolled gap and the earning differences between men and women who have the same qualifications, experience, and job description as the controlled gap.
Not only does the gender wage gap negatively impact individuals but also society as a whole because "an economy is more dynamic, strong, and resilient when all citizens – men and women alike – can contribute equally."
The Largest Gender Wage Gaps
So, to answer the question posed at the beginning of this post, the countries with the highest gender wage gaps are South Korea, Israel, Latvia, and Japan. The United States is sitting at 7th on the list with "women earning 84% of what their male counterparts earned" in 2021. When broken down further by race, white, Black, and Hispanic women earn 83%, 70%, and 65% respectively of the average white male salary. Unsettlingly, in recent years, there appears to have been a stagnation in the shrinkage of the wage gap and gender-related reforms in general.
Within the United States, industries with the largest gender wage gaps include protective services, management, maintenance, and construction, with the legal industry taking the top position with men earning 59% more than women.
Closing the Gender Wage Gap
Now, a more important question: what can we do to further (and eventually fully) close the gap (and hopefully in less time than the 131 years projected by the World Economic Forum)?
Focus on education: As mentioned earlier, women are more likely to choose less well-paying career paths than men. One way to discourage this tendency is to encourage more girls of school-going age to participate in educational endeavors that are likely to lead to higher-paying jobs.
Focus on bias mitigation: Employers may be acting in a discriminatory manner towards their women employees because of unconsciously held biases such as "pro-male definitions of leadership." These biases can result in women being rated more poorly in performance evaluations, not being promoted as frequently, and being assigned to less high-profile tasks, all of which are likely to negatively impact their earnings. Through conducting perception surveys, language analyses, bias training, and putting clear and consistent criteria (e.g. for promotions) in place, organizational leaders can be made aware of the biases they hold, making them more likely to change their behaviours.
Focus on policy: In the majority of countries, household and care work is predominantly undertaken by women which is a factor that often hinders their career growth. The implementation of policies relating to paternity leave and access to affordable childcare have the potential to counteract this negative implication.
Despite the fact that pay secrecy is illegal in the United States, the majority of private-sector workers are prevented from openly discussing their earnings with their colleagues. Enforcing pay transparency policies exposes gender pay gaps, alerting employers to their unconscious biases or making it harder for employers to hide discriminatory practices if they are intentional.
Conclusion
Pay equity is a prerequisite for companies and countries to reach their full economic potential. If you are a leader, start making choices that will create a world in which a woman can not only do any job a man does (a right that was hard fought for and is still not universal) but be compensated for it in the same way too. If you are a citizen with a voice, start advocating for the rights of the women around you. If you are a working woman, start asking to be paid what you know you are worth; your male colleagues have been doing it for years!
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