The pandemic has been financially hard on a lot of people, but working women have, on average, paid a higher price than men. More women have left the workforce than men since the beginning of 2020 and those who remain in the workforce are paid significantly less. The gender pay gap has not gotten any smaller in the last two years and this is bad news for women all over the world. What can be done about it and what is behind this stagnation?
Millions of women have had to quit their jobs
The Pew Research Centre reports that 2.4 million US women left the workforce between February 2020 and February 2021, compared with 1.8 million men. And, Oxfam International estimates that women around the world lost at least $800 billion in income. This loss, Bloomberg reports, is largely attributed to the representation of women in industries hardest hit by the COVID recession, such as retail and tourism. At the same time, many women also left their jobs to care for children while schools and daycares were closed.
While this, in itself, is discouraging enough, the Pew Research Center also found that, in 2020, US women who remained in the workforce earned 84% of what men earned. Bloomberg did some math and calculated that this means women would have to work an additional 42 days to earn the same amount of money as men. The gender wage gap remained unchanged from the year before.
In Canada, we may be faring slightly better. A 2021 report from the Government of Canada states that women in Canada's workforce earn approximately 89 cents for every dollar earned by men, “according to the most recent data,” up two cents, from 87 cents, over 2018.
Moreover, looking back at data from more than 10 years ago, it’s noteworthy that women were reportedly earning 87% of what men were earning back in 2011. In other words, if we take these reports at face value, nothing has changed in more than a decade.
What are the forces behind the gender pay gap?
The forces behind the gender pay gap are many. Some of the main hypotheses, from the The Canadian Research Data Centre Network, include:
- The overrepresentation of women in lower paid jobs.
- Women bear the greater share of family responsibilities, which means they both opt for jobs that offer more flexibility and are also more likely to leave the workforce to care for children.
- Gender stereotypes in many organizations place more value on men’s skills and experience.
That last point demonstrates a particular lack of employer insight, given that employee engagement is a top factor in company success, and research findings show that women are generally more engaged at work than men.
As noted, the pandemic has led many women to leave the workforce. And once people leave the workforce it’s difficult to get back in and regain the same momentum one had previously. People are often required to take the same job or a lower position, while those who remained in their workplaces may have had the opportunity to move up the ladder.
Pew has found that:
- Women are nearly twice as likely as men to say taking time off after birth or adoption had a negative impact on their career.
- Mothers with children younger than 18 were more likely than fathers to say they needed to reduce their work hours, couldn’t give full effort at work, and turned down a promotion because they were balancing work and parenting responsibilities. (via Bloomberg)
Even in Canada, where we are given paid parental leave, leaving can still negatively affect a person’s upward mobility.
It should not be surprising that the pay gap is reportedly much smaller for younger women, aged 25 to 34. Women in the age group still make less, at 93 cents for every dollar a man earns, but the gap is smaller. Women in this group are less likely to have had children and left the workforce to care for them.
A few suggestions that may help close the gender pay gap:
Ensuring young children remain in school. While schooling currently presents a different set of issues in terms of potential virus transmission, in terms of women’s economic fortunes, keeping schools open is key. A paper from the US National Bureau of Economic Research states, “[E]ven though school and daycare closings during the pandemic have had disproportionate impacts on parents, it is mothers who have been most impacted […] the hours that women have added created so heavy a load that some had to sacrifice their jobs and careers because of care issues and others had to sacrifice their children’s education and care for their livelihood.”
Conducting company pay audits and course correcting. Companies should conduct audits to compare how women and men doing work of equal value are compensated. Imbalances should be corrected.
Eliminating hiring biases. Employers may have internal biases of which they are not even aware. It’s probably impossible to eliminate them entirely, but there are some suggestions for doing so. These include conducting a blind hiring process, which software programs can facilitate, creating a standardized interview process, and conducting panel interviews.
Encouraging wage transparency. Barring employees from discussing wages only serves those who are making the most money. Companies should be transparent about compensation across levels and how it is determined. Knowing what others are making helps people of all genders understand their market value, so they know what they should be earning.
Implementing flexible work schedules. As women do statistically take on the bulk of family responsibility, implementing schedules that allow them to work and care for their children (rather than waiting for men to pick up the slack…and, yes, we know not all men) will help them balance their schedules and maintain gainful employment.
Encouraging women to negotiate for what they’re worth. If women are to be paid what they are worth, they need to go to bat for themselves and not accept less.
In Canada, the Pay Equity Act came into force on August 31, 2021. This, together with Pay Equity Regulations, will support the implementation of the Pay Equity Act, ensuring that workers in federally regulated workplaces receive equal pay for work of equal value. This only applies, however, to federally regulated workplaces listed here.
