By Dara Flynn
Gender pay disparity is the glacier that just won’t melt. And progress in narrowing the pay gap between men and women in the workplace is patchy at best.
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The most recent data from late 2023 shows that on average, women still earn around 13 per cent less than men per hour worked.
This means that from a certain time in the work day, women are effectively working for free, when compared with their male colleagues.
The European Commission has quite rightly described progress on closing the pay gap as «too slow» and branded last year’s progress on the issue as «stagnant».
These days, not only are women still underpaid, but they know it. According to a survey (by the job application company CV Wizard), more than half of women feel they are underpaid.
Of the 1,000 workers surveyed, 55 per cent of the women said they weren’t paid enough, and the highest dissatisfaction was among women in the 30-44 age group.
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EU drive to narrow the gap
Pay transparency, however, should help. While the gender pay gap is closing at a glacial pace, worker awareness of the gap is increasing, partly thanks to the EU Pay Transparency Directive launched in 2023.
It requires employers with 250 or more employees to report on their gender pay gap yearly, or every three years for firms with 150 or more employees.
As far as gender-related legislation goes, this box-fresh directive goes relatively far. Its clauses include provisions for compensation for victims of pay discrimination and fines for employers who break the rules.
In the UK – unaffected by EU directives – the government has launched its own pay transparency pilot scheme that encourages companies to display salaries in all of their job ads.
This means that women will be in a better position to compare their pay with colleagues’ remuneration from the outset.
Nordic countries leading the way
The pay gap is a global problem, and one that makes even the EU’s fledgling efforts seem light-years ahead.
In the US, the gender pay gap is closer to 17 per cent and its Institute for Women’s Policy Research projects that gender pay equity won’t arrive for another 25 years. American Gen Z workers won’t see it; even for Gen Alpha women, it’ll probably still be an issue.
Within Europe, it’s little surprise that the Nordic countries are giving more southerly employers a run for their money. In the past decade, the gender pay gap in those five economies – Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland – has narrowed.
As of 2021, Finland’s gap closed from 20 per cent to 16.2 per cent; in the best-performing Scandi nation, Sweden, the pay gap went from 15.6 per cent to 10.4 per cent. What did the trick?
Strong pressure on firms from labour unions and staff associations, eventually followed by government legislation. Culture change came first, and the law followed.
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Legislation is a notoriously blunt, and late, measure for tackling the long-term issues that come with any sort of inequality in the workplace, including gender. Cultural change needs to happen, which means the demand for pay parity needs to be obvious, vocal and inexorable.
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