Pay gap: women in the world of work

Throughout history, there has been a clear disparity between men and women in terms of rights, resources and opportunities. This is known as the gender gap and can be expressed in different fields, such as work, politics or education.

In the words of Doctor Pedro Jesús Jiménez Vargas, gender inequality or gender gap can be defined as "a social and cultural phenomenon where not all people from a social group or community can access the same goods, services and rights , producing unequal and discriminatory treatment basically because of their gender” (Torralba Carrasco, 2020, p.2)

After many years relegated to domestic chores, women have been able to enter the labor market since the 20th century. Although much progress has been made in this area since it began to form part of the so-called "active population", there is still significant gender inequality in the labor market, represented by the difference in opportunities, professional stagnation and the wage gap.

In this scenario, in most countries and economic sectors, women still receive less economic income than men. This shows that the gender wage gap represents one of the greatest social injustices today. For this reason, this text will analyze the case of the gender gap in the labor market, specifically, the wage gap.

At first, it is necessary to make a brief historical account of the evolution of the participation of women in the labor scene. It should be noted that the incorporation of women in the labor world is very recent and, despite the great advances in this matter, there is still a great difference between genders in opportunities, hours worked, conditions and income received.

Previously, in many regions of the world, the traditional role that women played was to dedicate themselves to taking care of the home -cleaning the house, raising children, caring for the sick or the elderly, etc.-, as a unique and obligatory task, while that their husbands, fathers or brothers did paid work outside the home, allowing families to subsist (Torralba Carrasco, 2020, p.2).

With the Industrial Revolution, this traditional role changed, women began to join the world of work, but without taking care of the house, family and children as their main task. The conditions in which women worked were not the most optimal, they did not have the same working conditions, that is, they earned less than men and did not have any labor rights (Fernández, Alba, 2018).

The foregoing caused the outbreak of a struggle by women workers, in many parts of the globe, to achieve better working conditions, defined hours and equality with respect to other workers. This situation gave rise to many women's movements to fight for their basic rights, which continue to this day.

In the middle of the last century, the number of women working in factories increased considerably, especially this increased even more with the outbreak of the First World War, and later the Second World War. The armed conflicts were a turning point, since men had to go to fight, leaving their jobs. This caused a high demand for workers in all economic sectors, mainly in industry. For this reason, jobs were quickly replaced by those who remained in the territories, women (Torralba Carrasco, 2020, p.3).

In the middle of the last century, the number of women working in factories increased considerably, especially this increased even more with the outbreak of the First World War, and later the Second World War. The armed conflicts were a turning point, since men had to go to fight, leaving their jobs. This caused a high demand for workers in all economic sectors, mainly in industry. For this reason, jobs were quickly replaced by those who remained in the territories, women (Torralba Carrasco, 2020, p.3).

After the creation of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there was greater interest in exposing and making visible, in numerous agreements, treaties and reports, the existing failures in the area of women's rights, specifically, on the conditions of disadvantage due to gender reasons that women face in the world in the economic, political, social, cultural spheres, etc.

In this context, despite the fact that the representation of women is increasing in the spheres of politics, education or the economy, there is still a gender gap. In the economic field, the existing inequalities towards women continue to be notorious, having as negative consequences a good performance of their activities and the perception of low income.

In the world, women continue to have fewer opportunities than men to participate in the labor market. In 2018, the economic participation rate registered by the World Labor Organization (ILO), estimated that women represent 27% of the labor force, while men 73% (International Labor Organization, 2019, p.19 ). This situation was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last three years of the pandemic, women have been more affected in terms of job losses.

The World Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that

Between 2019 and 2021, worldwide employment for women fell by 4.2%, representing a loss of 54 million jobs, while that of men fell by 3%, equivalent to 60 million jobs (2021, p.2)

This is largely due to the impact of the lockdowns that affected all sectors, some more than others, such as manufacturing and services, where women are mostly represented, and where they often work in informal modalities ( International Labor Organization, 2021, p.2).

Coupled with the stagnation of women's labor market participation before and during the pandemic, it is also largely because women tend to have more limited access than men to high-quality employment opportunities, have more difficulty accessing higher-paid positions, occupy fewer public positions and sometimes do not have access to education to hold professional positions because they are women (El Orden Mundial, 2020).

In a way, this situation is due to aspects such as the disproportionate burden of unpaid domestic work, the incorporation of women into the partial and informal economy, less participation of women in high positions, or professional and educational segregation, among other aspects.

First, unpaid domestic work is an activity that in many parts of the world is still considered a gender role that must be carried out by the women in the family. Even in the 21st century, women perform most of the domestic chores and most of the unpaid care work, both for the home and for elderly members, the sick and children (International Labor Organization, 2019 , p.20).

Likewise, in addition to the unequal distribution of hours of unpaid work in care tasks, there is also the lack of access to day care centers or the non-existence of public and company policies that take family needs into account, which prevents the full development of women in their jobs and, consequently, a negative impact in terms of their long-term job performance (International Labor Organization, 2019, p. 20).

Secondly, the unequal conditions between men and women have allowed women to obtain by seeking more flexible jobs, through part-time jobs or, on many occasions, they are forced to work in the informal economy, where they can find more flexible jobs in terms of hours and duration.

In the case of countries with higher incomes, women opt for part-time jobs because they have less time to carry out a full paid work day, for those hours they dedicate to unpaid tasks. An example of the above are the countries of the European Union, where according to Eurostat data from 2020, a third of women in the EU, that is, 30%, work part-time, while only 8% of men they do. In total, women accumulate more hours of work per week than men, but they are not paid (European Parliament, 2022).

In other regions of the world, according to data obtained from the periodic report of UN Women, The progress of the World's Women, it is estimated that around 75% of the women who work worldwide do so in the informal market, either as street vendors, domestic workers, agricultural workers, merchants of goods and services, among others of an informal nature (UN Women, 2015, p.79).

In the same UN Women report it was observed that, by regional distribution, the total percentage of informal jobs is found in greater quantity in South Asia, with more than 80% of women with work being in the informal sector; in Sub-Saharan Africa they represent 74% and in Latin America and the Caribbean 54% (UN Women, 2015, p.14)

The informal work of women means that, to a large extent, they lack the social protection offered by the labor laws of each country, as well as benefits, pensions, health insurance or paid sickness benefits. In the same way, in this form of work the days are daily with hours of more than 8 hours a day, very low wages, insecurity and risks of being victims of another type of discrimination or rape (UN Women, 2015, p.14). .

Third, the little possibility that women have to access high positions. Among the studies that outline this situation, there is the latest research carried out by the Foundation for Applied Economics Studies (FEDEA), which concluded that women occupy only 10% of senior management positions in companies (Carrillo, Nereida, 2017). In these cases where women manage to occupy these positions, it has been observed that they earn 31% less per hour than men in the same position (European Parliament, 2022).

Along the same lines, the study by ESADE "Gender Monitor" shows that seven out of ten women managers believe that companies treat men favorably when they rise to positions of high responsibility (Carrillo, Nereida, 2017). For this reason, senior management positions are mostly held by men.

The fourth, and last, point is the professional segregation of women. Despite advances in access to education for women, they have not translated into a comparable improvement in their position at work. In educational levels around the world, women have equaled or even surpassed those of men, but this has not served to reduce the gender gap in the labor field (International Labor Organization, 2019, p.20).

Similarly, in another scenario, more frequently women interrupt their professional career for personal reasons, to attend to other activities such as pregnancies, illnesses or family issues, lagging behind in comparison to those men who do not have to stop in their professional careers. or there are no situations that force them not to specialize continuously (CCOO Confederal Secretariat for Women and Equality, 2015).

In general, all of the above shows that there is a notorious unequal employment situation between women and men, which has a direct effect on the levels of remuneration that women receive, which is known as the Gender Wage Gap.

International bodies tasked with calculating the gender pay gap globally and regionally use the gender pay gap as an indicator of gender inequality in the world of work and also frequently to monitor progress towards equal pay. gender at a national or international level (International Labor Organization, 2019, p.vi).

The salary gap is perceived as the difference between the salaries received by women and men, calculated on the basis of the average difference between the gross income per hour of all jobs and refers to full-time employees, on the one hand, and to the self-employed, on the other (European Union Publications Office, 2014).

According to ILO data, worldwide, the wage gap has remained at the same level as in 2018, at an average of 20% of the difference in wages received by men and women. Likewise, it is observed that, despite the fact that since 2013 there has been a considerable increase in the wages of women in the world, this difference continues to be maintained. The study highlights that salary growth went from 2.4% in 2016 to 1.8% during 2017 (United Nations, 2018).

The gender pay gap remains wide and persistent, as well as widespread. Around the world, women are more likely to generate lower incomes due to gender issues. In the cases of women of color, immigrant women, mothers, or who belong to another vulnerable group, the gap is even greater. It is estimated that, worldwide, women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns (UN Women, 2017).

This problem constitutes such a complex situation in which many issues intervene, such as those mentioned above, which are usually interrelated and are expressed in a notorious discrimination against women, where their work is usually undervalued, or simply, they are not given the opportunity to do it.

As a long-term consequence of this situation, women are more likely to experience poverty in old age. This is because the unequal share of income has the impact, in principle, of earning less throughout your life. This leads in the long term, if it is the case, to obtain lower pensions or not generate pensions for old age due to being part of informal work (Publications Office of the European Union, 2014).

The ILO has mentioned in its estimates on this problem that, for there to be equal pay, the salary between men and women should be the same for the same work done, but it must also be the same, even if they are completely different jobs, if it is the same value, measured with common and objective criteria, confronting what he calls horizontal segmentation in the labor market, which in practice manifests itself in the fact that some jobs concentrate women while others concentrate men, according to parameters of sexual differentiation of work (Aguayo Ormeno, 2020).

Resolving inequality in economic income would translate into a way that could help change stereotypes about the aspirations, preferences, and abilities of women to carry out certain jobs. Also, increase the capacity of companies to attract and retain the best workers.

In addition to, in women's lives, it would increase women's pensions and reduce the risk of poverty in old age or make women less vulnerable to the possibility of falling into poverty. Likewise, the probability that low-income households, those supported by women, fall into poverty or remain in it (CCOO Confederal Secretariat for Women and Equality, 2015).