Globally, the gender pay gap averages about 18%. Women continue to be underrepresented in higher-paid industries, where men are traditionally predominantly employed. The most in-demand and high-paying jobs are concentrated in the STEM industries (science, technology, engineering, and math), where women make up a relatively small proportion of the workforce.
According to article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. The issue of equal pay is so important that the International Labor Organization even adopted the 1951 Convention on Equal Remuneration for Men and Women for Work of Equal Value. According to article 2 of this Convention, each member of the organization shall promote and ensure the application of the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value to all workers.
Over the past 70 years, with the aim of eliminating inequality in wages of men and women, numerous regulations have been adopted both at the international level and at the level of individual states. However, despite all the declared requirements for equal pay, the corresponding principle of equality does not always work.
Fostering “modesty”
Society strives to raise modesty in girls, and they grow up with the conviction that they should not push out their qualities and emphasize their achievements – they will always be appreciated properly. Women appeared in the professional field much later than men, at the end of the 19th century, and thus the history of female paid work is not so long. Although nowadays, there are more girls than boys among university graduates, who show best grades and hold degrees with distinctions. At the same time, women, as a rule, have low professional self-esteem, and therefore many women at interviews call the employer an amount of salary similar to the one that they were paid before – knowingly lower.
Part-time work
A clearer factor influencing the gender pay gap is part-time work. On average, less than 15 percent of men work part-time and there are three times more women.
This is important because part-time workers tend to be paid at a reduced hourly rate. It’s not that part-time workers get less because they work fewer hours. They actually have lower hourly wages. So perhaps this is about unequal wages depending on the number of hours worked. It also affects the gender pay gap, as women are most often employed in part-time employment.
“Women in the Working Field”
Another reason men earn more than women on average is that men are more likely to work in more prestigious jobs that are better paid. This sounds like an outdated stereotype: investment bankers or CEOs tend to be men, and nurses and teachers tend to be women. But this is not just a stereotype.
Official data confirms that men are more likely to be employed in senior management positions, while many more women work in low-paid sectors, such as secretaries or nurses. Therefore, if to look at all workers in general and take the average wage, it turns out that women earn less than men do.
It is also important to mention that traditions also play an important role – what kind of work in society is usually called male, and what – female.
Maternity
Another factor contributing to the pay gap is motherhood. This may be due to temporary cessation of work or to shorter working hours, with the desire of women to choose working conditions that are more favorable for the family, but with lower wages. Not the least role-plays stereotypical approach to recruitment and promotion at the enterprise level, which hinders the career development of women raising children.
