Progress towards equal pay between men and women is minimal and women around the world suffer from a "
motherhood penalty
" with overpriced childcare and careers slowed by births, according to a study by PwC.
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The
Women in Work
Index shows that progress towards gender equality in the OECD has been "
disproportionately low
" over the past decade, with a persistent pay gap of 14%, which has only fallen by 2.5 percentage points since 2011, details PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC) in a press release on Tuesday.
At this rate, it will take 50 years to reach parity, according to the firm.
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“Pressure on mothers”
Especially since the improvements “
over the past year stem more from the post-covid recovery in the labor market than from genuine progress
”, specifies PwC.
The consulting firm believes that a "
maternity penalty
", or loss of earnings over the course of life for women who raise children, is the main factor explaining this wage gap.
It is due to slower career progression when women return to work after childbirth, and the “
unfairly low share of child care and education taken by fathers
” across the world.
The study focuses in particular on the United Kingdom, speaking of a "
crisis of childcare which has become unaffordable and of a small proportion of men who take parental leave
", forcing "
a growing proportion of women to more work
”.
"
Affordable cost of childcare is essential to ease pressures on mothers and families and reduce women's unpaid work burden
."
"
Rethinking parental leave policies to support a
'
two salaries, two careers
' model
would help change societal attitudes
" about the role of fathers and mothers and would economically benefit society as a whole, PwC insists.
Within the OECD countries, the United Kingdom fell five places in the PwC index on equal pay between women and men, falling from 9th in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, to 14th place a year later, the last year of data available.
Despite everything, the United Kingdom remains at the top of the G7 countries, ahead of Canada (18th place), the United States (25), France (23), Germany (21), Japan (28) and the United Kingdom. Italy (30).
Luxembourg, New Zealand and Slovenia are in the top three places of the index, with the strongest advance marked by Hungary, now 13th, and the strongest fall by Switzerland (20th).
