Gabriela Samela
02/27/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 02/27/2021 6:00 AM
During January, men who applied for jobs through the Bumeran portal indicated that they intended to earn -on average- $ 72,757.
The women, on the other hand, asked for $ 62,706, that is,
$ 10,051 less
.
The data for January are no exception:
the required remuneration index shows a stable gap
since March 2019, with variations ranging from 13.9% to 18.5% in favor of men.
At the same time, the salary difference required by gender increases with the
seniority
of the position.
In junior positions, men required a 5.1% higher salary in January than women;
in the semi-senior and senior, they asked for 17.3% more, and
in the positions of boss or supervisor, the difference reached 21.3%
.
Thus, in January the average salary required for junior positions, considering both sexes, was $ 47,290, but the average among women was 1,000 pesos below, while that of men was 1,000 pesos above ($ 46,104 and $ 48,476, respectively).
On the other hand, applicants for senior / semi-senior positions requested a salary of $ 67,598, but the average among women was $ 62,228 and that of men, $ 72,969.
Finally, the salary sought by those interested in filling positions of boss, supervisor or manager was $ 105,217, although men on average asked $ 115,358 and women, $ 95,077.
"This is something that has been going on for a long time. It is not a surprise," says Nicolás Rocha, regional director of Bumeran Selecta.
"Furthermore, it is not a phenomenon of Argentina: we see it in all the countries of the region," he says.
This difference between what occurs in the applications "has consequences in the reality of average salaries," says Rocha.
The manager does not risk an explanation for the distance between the required salaries, but he does mention that "in general women value other types of non-remunerative benefits a little more than men: welfare, flexibility or, in the old normality, working from the house".
Another notable piece of information from the Bumeran report is that
the number of female applicants decreases as one advances in the hierarchical pyramid
.
For junior positions, women represent 55% of applications.
In semi-senior and senior positions, they are 50%.
But for managers, supervisory positions or managers, the proportion falls to 30%.
"For the highest positions, the candidates tend to have an age in which many women start with a family project and that takes them away for a time from the world of the labor dependency relationship," says Rocha.
Cultural issue
"There is a traditional view
which argues that women have fewer negotiating gifts and that we ask for less because of low self-esteem, because we lack the ability to evaluate our value ", describes Cintia Gonzalez Oviedo, director of the consulting firm Bridge The Gap.
But the specialist assures that
the traditional view is not supported by any scientific evidence
.
A central aspect to understand why women ask for less salary than men are gender stereotypes.
"Women are socialized in care tasks, not in the world of negotiation, leading and producing," says González Oviedo.
On the other hand, and in accordance with these stereotypes, "women who do ask for what they are worth are sanctioned by the market. The message is: 'if I ask too much they will not take me into account', because they are expected to women ask for less ".
There is also the belief that women are "cheaper" because maternity leave will entail higher costs.
"
It is not true that we are naturally lacking in self-esteem
and that is why we do not dare to negotiate. Rather, when we are encouraged, the message we receive is that we ask too much," emphasizes the consultant.
Thus, "we adapt".
Although women develop the same behaviors as men, the responses they receive from the environment are different.
"A study published by
Harvard Business Review
shows that the responses of the audience, the leader or the report were very different to the same behavior of a man and a woman. The conclusion is that gender matters and that we need people specialized in gender in all areas ", points out González Oviedo.
"When you see an ambitious woman, you end up judging her as unscrupulous," says Cecilia Giordano, CEO of Mercer, in the same vein.
Therefore, it
is a cultural question that women say a lower pretended value
than men.
"Women are raised under a paradigm of perfection, that is why they are so afraid to err, while men are raised to be courageous, brave, ambitious," says Giordano.
According to the CEO of Mercer,
other countries do not ask
for
intended remuneration
to join a job: "In the United States, for example, that question is not asked. For a certain position, there is a clear remuneration, especially in entry positions ".
The lack of clarity on the value of each position allows a gender pay gap to begin to develop from the initial positions.
"There there is a first lag that widens because men are more aggressive in asking for salary increases and demanding their bonuses and because
when women leave the labor force due to maternity many times they lose a raise, lose a bonus or lose that they send it to some training,
"Giordano describes.
A survey by this consulting firm showed that 81% of companies in Argentina have not identified the existence of a wage gap between men and women.
Of the 19% of companies that have identified it, 57% stated that they were taking concrete actions to minimize or eliminate it, such as: annual adjustments, tracking gaps with improvement plans and equity analysis.
"In general, when companies say that they did not identify a gap, it is because they do not measure it or they do not start to analyze and understand what is happening," Giordano clarifies.
In first person
"I had to pass it when I came from Chile to Argentina", says Francisca Sanhueza Valencia, Country Manager of the German multinational Biotronik.
"I was
30% below my male peers
because I did not get advice," he confesses.
Sanhueza Valencia had joined the company as a commercial director.
Then he was in charge of the Argentine subsidiary, and when he had to move he lacked information to achieve a better negotiation.
"They were a new country and field for me, which I did not know," he says.
That is why he recommends taking advice: "From the experiences of others you can learn a lot and from there get
what you pay for in the market
."
Francisca Sanhueza Valencia, Country Manager of Biotronik in Argentina, was 30% out of date with respect to her male peers.
As there is no doubt about the value that the executive brings to the company, the Argentine subsidiary of Biotronik was for two consecutive years (2019 and 2020) the one with the highest growth in the world.
"I think companies are going to be able to stand up when they realize that their great wealth is people. They have to value talent, diversity, focus on the physical and emotional well-being of people. The return on that investment it is very high ", assures Sanhueza Valencia.
But, on the other hand, "we come from
mandates that are very deeply rooted
. There are women in charge of their households who have to ask permission to use the money. We still need to work on biases and female perception," she says.
Although he clarifies that "Argentina is very advanced on gender issues compared to other Latin American countries, and the problem of equity is more exposed"
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