The five sectors with the highest and lowest salary gap between women and men in 2022

The gender pay gap It is one of the expressions of sexism, of the value that society places on “a woman working and a man working,” said Laura Tamayo, president of the Commission for Inclusion and Diversity of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE).

In an event that brought together women and men with managerial positions in companies and civil organizations, the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (Imco) presented the results of an investigation about women absent in space: those who earn the least.

The report Gender wage gap: A sectoral and international comparisonprepared by the team led by Fátima Masse, director of Imco’s Inclusive Society, indicates that the 70% of women Women workers in Mexico “earn less than two minimum wages, and few grow during their professional career until they reach decision-making positions that are better paid.”

The researchers found that the sectors where women earn much less than men are those where we are the majority. Instead, they earn more than their peers in industries where they are few female workers as a proportion of the total.

According to the Imco report, the largest gender wage gap is in the Mass Media, line in which the difference reaches 33 percent. On average, communicators, journalists, photographers, cameramen and, in general, women who work in this industry earn 67 pesos for every 100 pesos they pay men.

The second largest gap is in the non-governmental serviceswhere female workers are paid 27% less than male workers.

The retail trade it has the third largest gender pay gap. Valeria Moy, general director of the IMCO, described this sector as “the little shops on the corner”. The economist explained that 57% of this type of business is run by women and, although there are really no different positions in this segment, women earn 26% less income than men.

The fourth and fifth places with the greatest wage inequality to the detriment of women are manufactures, as well as the lodging and food preparation sector. In both industries, female workers earn 24% less than their male counterparts.

Sectors in which there is no gap

There is no magic solution to close this gap, the product of a structural system, said Fátima Masse. We must promote and understand the benefits of diverse workforces, one of them is innovation, she pointed out. To do this, you have to know how the payroll is, if there is a labor gap and where.

Another step is to implement policies of Labor flexibility. In companies that really put them at stake, and not only refer to allowing teleworking one day or another, “many women have a change of life.”

“This problem is structural and responds to a series of barriers,” said Valeria Moy. For example, unpaid care work, which is still performed by most women and few men, translates into shorter working hours. “Women have fewer hours available to work” in paid employment.

In addition, gender stereotypes “causes a greater concentration of the female or male labor force in certain sectors and occupations”, which reduces their income.

The real estate It is one of those with the greatest presence of women, but contrary to the previous five, in this one its predominance is reflected in salary. This industry has the largest gender gap for men, as women earn an average of 43% more than men.

From here, the other four sectors where women earn more, they are a minority in the total workforce. The Construction Industry It is the second job where they, on average, receive more income, they earn up to 33% more than their peers. In addition, only 15% of them earn up to a minimum wage, while 24% of men receive that amount.

Women represent only 4% of the staff and the majority occupy administrative positions. A big difference, and perhaps the explanation for this inequality, is that 54% of women who work in construction studied a bachelor’s degree, while only 9% of men reached that level of education.

According to the IMCO, in mining women earn 25% more than men, it is the third place with the best salary difference in favor of them. Jobs related to electricity, water and gas are in fourth place, with a wage gap of 9 percent. In fifth position are agricultural activities, where women earn up to 3% more.

Another important fact from the study is that Mexico has a gender income gap of 14%, which is lower than that of Iceland or the United Kingdom. However, that is because there fewer women working in our country than in European nations, not to a competitive advantage in the labor market.