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The Guardian

The global pay gap between men and women will take 202 years to close, because it is so vast and the pace of change so slow, according to the World Economic Forum.
The WEF, which organises the annual meeting of business and political leaders in Davos, said the global gender pay gap has narrowed slightly over the past year, but the number of women in the professional workplace has fallen. In 2017, the WEF estimated that it would take 217 years to close the pay gap.
“The overall picture is that gender equality has stalled,” Saadia Zahidi, the WEF’s head of social and economic agendas, said.
“The future of our labour market may not be as equal as the trajectory we thought we were on.”
The WEF found that on average women across the world are paid just 63 per cent of what men earn. There is not a single country where women are paid as much as men. Laos, in Southeast Asia, is the closest to achieving parity with women earning 91 per cent of what men are paid.
Yemen, Syria and Iraq have the biggest pay gaps with women being paid less than 30 per cent the level of mens’ wages.
“In the workplace, women still encounter significant obstacles in taking on managerial or senior official roles,” the report said.
Is gender pay inequality a problem in Hong Kong?
“When we consider only managers for the subset of countries for which recent data are available, just about 34 per cent of global managers are women.”
Women are also far behind in politics, and the WEF estimated that at the current pace of change it will take 107 years until there are as many female politicians as male.
“When it comes to political and economic leadership, the world still has a long way to go,” the report said.
“Across the 149 countries assessed, there are just 17 that currently have women as heads of state, while, on average, just 18 per cent of ministers and 24 per cent of parliamentarians globally are women.”


Iceland is the most equal country in terms of political roles, but there is still a 33 per cent gap and it has widened compared to last year.
Genital mutilation, sexual assault, pay gap: the reality of women’s lives globally
“Just six other countries (Nicaragua, Norway, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Finland and Sweden) have closed at least 50 per cent of their gap,” the report said.
“On the other end of the spectrum, almost one-quarter of the countries assessed have closed less than 10 per cent of their gender gap, and the four worst-performing countries – Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman and Yemen – have yet to bridge over 97 per cent of their gap.”
Klaus Schwab, executive chairman of the WEF, said: “The equal contribution of women and men in this process of deep economic and societal transformation is critical. More than ever, societies cannot afford to lose out on the skills, ideas and perspectives of half of humanity.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg


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Women and gender

Women will be paid the same as men … in about 200 years

The global pay gap between men and women will take 202 years to close, because it is so vast and the pace of change so slow, according to the World Economic Forum. Photo: Shutterstock

Is gender pay inequality a problem in Hong Kong?

Men and women in the city clearly earn different levels of income, but whether that is something to be fixed is where opinions vary

Illo

Hollywood actress Michelle Williams made waves when she recently stated she got paid less than one per cent of what her male co-star received for reshooting scenes in a movie. Photo: Reuters

News

World

Gender equality has stalled, says World Economic Forum, as women globally are paid 63 per cent of what men get


Women may be shouting louder than ever for equal treatment and pay, but a new report indicates it will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe.


Women will be paid the same as men … in about 200 years

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Gender equality has stalled, says World Economic Forum, as women globally are paid 63 per cent of what men get

Gender equality has stalled, says World Economic Forum, as women globally are paid 63 per cent of what men get