Women still suffer from a 16% pay gap when compared to their male counterparts around the world, the latest gender pay gap report has revealed.
To coincide with International Women’s Day (8 March), a study from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), The Global Gender Pay Gap, reveals that on average, women around the world are paid less than their male colleagues.
Findings from the survey of 400,000 workers in 12 countries, as well as further sources from more than 60 countries, include:
- More educated women often experience a bigger pay gap compared to men with a similar educational background
- Downward pressure on men’s wages is closing the pay gap rather than increased income for women and
- Information on incomes is not available for hundreds of millions of people in informal and unprotected work, mainly in developing countries.
ITUC president Sharan Burrow said: “Despite decades of anti-discrimination legislation and changes in company rhetoric, the pay packets of women, whether they are in New York or Shanghai, are still significantly thinner than those of men.”
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TUC general secretary Brendan Barber added: “This persistent global gender pay gap is causing widespread poverty, damaging family health and stunting economic growth.”
However, the report highlighted that differences in the criteria for collecting and analysing data, or the absence of jobs such as domestic work in the statistics, can lead to “under-estimation” of the real gap.
