Gender disparity has been always been one of the serious problems in our society. The gap between the wages of male and female workers has always remained in question. The gap between the wages of male and female workers widened to 8.3% on average this year. The gender pay gap, measured by the earnings for full-time employees, rose to the figure up from 7.7 in April 2021. It reached a peak of 9% in April 2019 before the pandemic.
What do Statistics show?
OS warned that the figures from the last two years were distorted by the effects of Covid-19 and longer-term trends. Older workers were worse off under the gender pay gap. Those aged between 40 to 49 witnessed a 10.9% difference compared with 3.2% less for those under 40.
How much is the pay disparity?
The highest-earning male employees still earned significantly more than their female counterparts. With a 15.5% pay disparity between the two, compared with a 3% gap among the lowest earners.
Why does pay disparity still exist?
On average, women do more hours of unpaid work, such as childcare or housework. This leaves less time for paid work. Women are also much more likely to be ones who have career breaks: in 2108, a third of employed women in the EU had work interruption for childcare reasons, compared to 1.3% of men. About 30% of the total gender pay gap, can be explained by an overrepresentation of women in relatively low-paying sectors. Fawcett Society executive Jemima Olchawski warned that the pay gap could be even worse for women of colour. The group calculates the gap to be higher at 11.3%
Actions needed
Ms Olchawski said, “we need more urgent action now, to put women’s equality at the heart of our economic recovery”. “the government should make flexible work the default with a requirement for jobs to be advertised as flexible upfront, to enable more women to work”. She called for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting and action plans and for employers to stop asking “discriminatory” salary history questions.
Women need equality in all spheres of life whether it be voting rights to financial stability. Women are discriminated against on the basis of their gender which is irrelevant in today’s world. This gap needs to be closed as soon as possible for the empowerment of women in society.
