How best to increase women’s participation in the workforce?
Digital fluency is the first step in closing the pay gap because it helps get more women into work
Management teams across Hong Kong celebrated International Women’s Day by recognising their successes and reflected upon what still needs to be done to establish a level playing field in the office.
Unquestionably the field remains uneven. Just 50 per cent of working-aged women are active in the labour force, compared with 76 per cent of men.
On average, men in paid employment today earn US$140 for every US$100 a woman in paid employment earns. In mainland China men are paid US$147 for every US$100 a woman is paid.
On current trends, the pay gap won’t close until 2080 in developed markets, and 2168 in developing markets.
Fixing this inequality matters. An increase in female labour force participation results in faster economic growth. Just by reducing the gap in employment between women and men, the International Labour Organisation estimated that an additional US$1.6 trillion output could be generated.
In everyday terms, that simply means better conditions for people. In China, for example, increasing the proportion of average household income earned by women by 10 per cent also improved girls’ survival rates by 1 percentage point and resulted in more boys and girls staying in school, according to a World Bank report.