The wage inequality gap is widening all the time, and this is not just a French problem, but a systemic one that is spreading worldwide. According to the UN, women workers earn on average 84% of what male workers earn. A major player in pay inequality is still the gender stereotype. At the current rate, the UN estimates that equal pay for men and women will be achieved by 2277In other words, 256 years from now, and this date shifts every year. So what will happen to women’s wages in 2022?
Women victims of gender stereotypes
Maintaining the home and raising children have always been considered women’s tasks. Household management does not need to be paid because women would be naturally predisposed to do so..
- Women spend an average of 10 years versus 4 years for men taking care of the household.
- Women are more likely to take days off for “sick children”.
What’s more, women’s activities can be more easily put on hold than those of their partners. Besides, less than 1% of fathers take full parental leave. The gender stereotype also affects men who apply for parental leave and receive negative feedback. For these reasons, a woman’s salary may be lower than a man’s.
The maternity penalty
Having children would not have the same impact on men’s and women’s career development. It would be a “maternity penalty“This is the name given to the American study that highlights it. Indeed, absence during maternity leave and reorganization of schedules for children reduce women’s access to positions of responsibility and salary increases.
Since 2006, there has been a legal obligation to benefit from general salary increases and average individual salary increases on her return from maternity leave. However, twice as many women than men remain underemployed after maternity leave. We note that that a majority of women who work part-time would nevertheless like to work more and earn more.
Equal pay issues
Under the same conditions, women’s salaries average between 10.5 to 25% lower lower than their male counterparts.
A study Australian study conducted in 2017 called “do women ask? – concludes that women ask for raises just as much as men, if not more. Asking for a raise is equated with showing leadership ambitions or behaviour. leaderdominant” behavior. This behavioral characteristic is valued by men, but not by women.
Growing disparities since the start of the pandemic
While wage inequality has been an issue for years, the situation has worsened with the arrival of the pandemic:
- Women are on the front line of work overload, ambient stress and additional risks working in the service and healthcare sectors
- They occupy the majority of precarious jobs and were the first to become unemployed
- School closures have reinforced the invisibility of working time and the associated mental burden, 43% of French women who are thinking of working part-time
The consequences have an impact on women’s mental health and restricted employment opportunities. It is worth noting that since the start of the crisis, the men earn more and more and women are sometimes forced back into full-time household management.
Acting for gender equality in the workplace
When it comes to parenthood issues, companies can resort to hybrid forms of work such as teleworking for employees who are parents. This enables parents to reconcile their personal and professional lives.
Closing the gender pay gap
It is possible to carry out an analysis of existing employees’ salaries to ensure gender equality. For Chidi King, Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the International Labour Organization – a regular review of practices and, above all, transparency in remuneration criteria and decisions help to reduce gender bias. Transparency is the key to highlighting inequalities and rebalancing salaries without discriminating on the basis of origin or gender.
Review recruitment policy and internal mobility
Women leave school with more qualifications than men, but are less likely to be hired on the job market. hired on the job marketless well paid and less promoted. We are in a society that promotes diplomas as a prerequisite for employment, but obviously this only works for white men.
Beyond recruitment, it is also vital that women participate in management structures. You need women at all levels of the companyand therefore promote women’s access to leadership positions and management committeeswhere they are largely absent.
When in France, we’re delighted to have doubled the number of days of paternity leave by 2021, Finland has just voted for 7 months’ leave for each parent. A new progressive acquis for a country that continues to invest in parenting. Although these are obviously not the only measures in place, countries that focus on both fathers’ involvement in household management and women’s investment in the job market achieve better results.
