Closing the hidden pay gap between men and women
Women graduating from university in developing markets in 2020 could be the first generation to close the gender pay gap in their lifetimes, according to a new research from Accenture.
The cross-industry report titled Getting to Equal 2017, includes findings from 29 countries and reveals that within decades, the average pay gap could close if women take advantage of three career equalisers and if business, government and academia provide critical support.
With these changes, the average pay gap in developed markets could close by 2044, shortening the time to pay parity by 36 years. In developing markets, the changes could cut more than 100 years off the time to reach pay parity, achieving it by 2066 instead of 2168.
Accenture’s research found that, globally, a woman earns an average $100 for every $140 a man earns. Adding to this imbalance is the fact that women are much less likely than men to have paid work (50% and 76%, respectively). This contributes to a “hidden pay gap” that increases the economic inequities between men and women: for every $100 a woman earns, a man earns $258, the research shows.
“Despite recent successes such as improvement in education, and more work opportunities, socio-cultural issues often force women to step back at important stages in their careers making the gap harder to close,” says Rekha Menon, chairman and senior managing director, Accenture in India. “However, the technology industry has played a transformative role in fostering gender equality in the workplace, through its products and services, and through inclusive policies and practices.”
In India, the research covered 31 industries, and found that the average pay gap between men and women is 67% (men earn $167 for every $100 earned by a woman.) Much of this gap is caused by the fact that there are more men than women in high paying functional and leadership roles, in addition to factors such as education levels, industry segment and hours worked. The research also found that applying the three strategies could add $39 billion to women’s incomes by 2030.
Applying these career accelerators, combined with support from business, government and academia, could reduce the pay gap by 35% by 2030, boosting women’s income $3.9 trillion globally. The report also found that female undergraduates in India are currently less likely than their male counterparts to continuously learn new digital skills (72% men vs 63% women).