MILAN – A 12 percent gap between men’s and women’s salaries, which that means his salary is reduced by one and a half months. Behind these numbers lies bitter mathematics that leads today, November 17, to “celebrate” – if we may say so – Equal Pay Day in Europe: it is the day that women symbolically stop receiving salaries.
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Awareness day for the EU, which varies depending on the latest data regarding the gender pay gap.
And how is Italy doing? The answer comes from the latest JobPricing Observatory survey, in collaboration with Idem – Mind The Gap. A report now in its 11th edition, emphasized that equality between men and women is still a distant goal. “The gap is closing in some areas – as we read – but too slowly to signal any structural change.”
The average pay gap in the private sector is 7.2% of gross annual salary (Ral) and 8.6% of annual global salary (Rga), with a range that widens to more than 27 points if the variable components alone are considered. Women earn on average 2,300 euros less in Ral and 2,900 euros less in Rga than men. If translated concretely, Italian workers seem to start receiving salaries on January 27, and work regularly starting January 1. Therefore, it is slightly better than other European countries, but still not enough.
The difference in salaries reflects work careers that develop on different paths. “The gender pay gap increases with age and seniority, exceeding 12% in the 55–64 age group, and remains pronounced in positions of responsibility“, explains the report from Jobpricing and Idem Observatory. In top positions – executives and top managers – women are only 19%, while among managers the percentage increases to 31%. On the boards of directors of listed companies, women’s representation reaches 43.2%, but only 16.9% hold executive positions and only 2.3% are managing directors.”
Satisfaction: women down
This does not mean that women do not bear the “burden” of these differences. In fact, the investigation shows that they expressed themselves as less satisfied with their remuneration package in all analyzed dimensions: the overall average was 3.6 points, compared with 4.5 points for men. The strongest differences are in perceptions of internal justice and meritocracy.
While waiting for changes to the directive regarding salary transparency, there were still situations that needed to be rectified, he recalled Nicole Boccardini, Idem operations manager – Mind the Gap: “The pay gap is just the tip of the iceberg of deeper cultural and structural inequalities that women experience ranging from education, access to conditions, growth and recognition in the world of work. Women continue to take on care work in disproportionate numbers, and remain underrepresented in decision-making roles.
Filling this imbalance – emphasizes Boccardini – does not only mean correcting economic injustice, but also intervening in the organizational and cultural mechanisms that continue to limit the full recognition of women’s work.” Matteo Galinahead of the Observatory: “One of the main concerns is the fact that the female component, which is itself more limited in terms of participation in the labor market, has always had a small share in the manager population and, moreover, in the corporate population where there is a decision-making role in the company, due to the cultural heritage that characterizes our entrepreneurial structure”.
