The salary gap between women and men continues to be high in Romania, namely 21.6% in favor of men, reveals the “Equal Pay Gender” analysis, carried out by PwC Romania based on the data collected in the Paywell survey.
According to the cited source, in 2023, the gap is calculated as the ratio between the average salary of men and that of women, and compared to the previous edition of the analysis, from 2022, it is, however, down by 1.7 percentage points.
Depending on the industries in which they work, the biggest wage gaps in favor of men are in the sectors: Banking, 30.5%, Pharmaceuticals 16.5%, Retail 15.27% and Technology, 11.92%. A different situation is encountered in production and BPO/SSC, where the rate is inverse of -7.02%, respectively -0.11%.
The analysis also shows that the biggest differences, compared to the positions they occupy, are for operators, of 19.64%, and the smallest at the top management level, of 6.09%.
At the same time, another PwC report – Workforce Hopes and Fears 2023, finds that there is a significant gap between the weight of requests for salary increases of men and women, of 21 percentage points, respectively of promotions, of eight percentage points.
“Although important progress was made in the period 2011-2022 in terms of reducing inequalities between women and men on the labor market in terms of indicators such as women’s participation in the labor market or unemployment, the average wage gap increased during this period in the member states of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) included in the PwC report “Women in Work Index” 2024 (WiW Index). This shows that, despite higher participation, women remain in a considerably weaker position in terms of labor market performance compared to men. Since the index was created in 2011, the gender pay gap has been one of the slowest improving indicators, narrowing by just three percentage points between 2011 and 2022 across the 33 OECD member states. Moreover, in 2022 the difference increased to 13.5% from 13.2% in 2021″, PwC Romania specialists note.
Thus, the WiW Index highlights that, at the current pace, it will take more than half a century to reduce the average wage gap between women and men in all 33 OECD countries.
Globally, the data show that Luxembourg ranks first in this index, followed by Iceland and Slovenia. Moreover, Luxembourg continues to have the smallest wage gap between women and men in the OECD, of -0.2%. The following countries in the ranking are: Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland. Australia saw the biggest improvement in its ranking, rising seven places, from 17th in 2021 to 10th in 2022. In contrast, the UK saw the biggest drop in the ranking, falling four places, from 13th in 2021 on the 17th in 2022.
This is the true issue and not sending silly Happy Women’s Day wishes.