#pay equality

Some call women's segregation into low-paid work a choice. But it's a funny kind of choice when there is no realistic option other than the children not being cared for and the housework not getting done. In any case, fifty year's worth of US census data has proven that when women join an industry in high numbers, that industry attracts lower pay and loses 'prestige’, suggesting that low-paid work chooses women rather than the other way around. This choice-that-isn't-a-choice is making women poor…Women earn between 31% and 75% less than men over their lifetimes.

Visualizing the Gender Pay Gap

There is already a significant pay gap between men and women in most countries. In the US, for example, 2022 data shows that for every US dollar a median man working full time makes, a median woman earns about 83 cents. In the UK, using the same parameters, the gap is marginally smaller, at about 85 pence to the British pound. According to the United Nations, the global gap is about 77 cents to the dollar, predominantly driven by women being under-represented in decision-making roles, doing more unpaid work than men and being over-represented in lower skilled and lower income work. Discrimination may also factor in, but that’s something that’s hard to measure and often difficult to prove, meaning that it can persist for years unnoticed. Yet women of colour earn even less. Research from the Center for American Progress (CAP), for example, showed that in the US, Hispanic women earned just 57 cents for every $1 earned by white, non-Hispanic men in 2020. For black women in the US, the wage gap may be responsible for an average of $976,800 in lost wages over a 40-year career, while resulting in losses of $1.15m for Latinas and $1.08m for Native American women. In the UK, ONS data shows Pakistani women earned about 69 pence for each pound earned by a man. As women of colour lose their opportunities for advancement and workforce tenure, it will be challenging to close this earnings gap, and enable them to gain footing in pay equality.