PERSONAL FINANCE | Gender Wage Gap
ARE WE CLOSING
THE GENDER WAGE GAP? Words 10 Ellen Media
Why can't a woman be more like a man? Men are so honest, so thoroughly square; Eternally noble, historically fair. Who, when you win, will always give your back a pat. Why can't a women be like that? - Alan Jay Lerner
It you want to be paid well, more like a man, you might just like to head off to Luxembourg, Costa Rica or even Colombia. According to the OECD data, on average women were paid on par with men in Costa Rica in 2019. While in Colombia women were paid slightly above par with men, the Colombian wage date showing women’s wages were on average .1% more than men in 2020. The position is even better in Luxembourg with women’s wages 3.1% above the average wages for men in 2018.
Rex Harrison famously co-starred with Audrey Hepburn in the 1964 movie My Fair Lady, acting as Dr Henry Higgins a professor of phonetics who transforms and passes the Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle off in society as a duchess. In fact the movie, is a retelling of the George Bernard Shaw’s 1914 Pygmalion. Shaw wanted to write a play advocating for women’s suffrage and the end of Britain’s class system. It was written in a time when women still did not have the right to vote.
Israel, Japan, and Latvia may be countries you wish to visit but if you are planning a working holiday, based on the OECD’s 2020 data expect to receive at least 20% less than your male colleagues. Korea you will fair even worse at close to 30% disparency in 2020.
Women’s place in society has advanced significantly since 1914 and even since 1964 but gender equality is still something that we strive for. Among the several areas of gender equality that the OECD advocates for is the desire to bridge the gender wage gap.
While this data may appear dated, it is unlikely to have changed much over the last couple of years due to the economic conditions experienced during COVID-19 lockdowns. The following table represent the OECD’s latest data for each of the 38 member nations and depicts the percentage disparency in the gender wage gap.
According to the latest results on research done by the OECD the gender gap wage is closing slowly in most of the 38 member countries but is still extremely disproportionate in some.
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