It’s not zero

If you say pay, you mean money, but pay parity is much more than money.

According to figures published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), on average, full-time male employees across the EU and 35 other countries were paid 10.8% more per hour in 2020.

OECD (2022), Gender wage gap (indicator). doi: 10.1787/7cee77aa-en

Payscale has updated the Gender Pay Gap Report in observance of Equal Pay Day (March 15, 2022). Today, in the U.S. women make $0.82 or every $1 that men make.?Figures over the years indicate a very, very slow progression. If we look at other factors, like race, for example, the difference is even bigger.

You would say that is less than $0.2 cents, it is not that much.

This difference is huge, it is the price a woman has to pay for being a woman.

The gap shows that the right to equal pay for the same work or work of equal value between female and male workers is not respected.

You’d like to get a couple of suggestions about how to fix it?

Let's start with one.

Lack of pay transparency is one of the key obstacles to enforcing this right.

Some government countries are implementing new pay transparency policies, but they are very few. For example, eighteen OECD countries require systematic, regular reporting by private sector firms on gender wage gaps. The UK is one of those countries that require large companies - companies with over 250 employees - to yearly publish any differences in salaries and bonuses between men and women. Full transparency will be achieved not only when a vast majority of countries will make such annual reports compulsory but also when such reporting will be audited.

For example, among 38 OECD countries, nine have implemented more comprehensive equal pay auditing processes in the private sector.

? Distribution of countries by the presence of regulations requiring private sector pay reporting, pay auditing, or related measures, OECD countries, 2021.

To fix a problem you need to be aware of it. To be aware of it, you need to see it, quantify it.

Surveys and reporting like those mentioned before are crucial to finding solutions and closing that gap.

The only gap we can accept is zero.

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