The Gender Pay Gap And The Economy
Welcome to another week in trading! As we look ahead to March, which is International Women’s History Month, we’re discussing the Gender Pay Gap and how it impacts the economy in 2023. Hint — as a women led marketing agency we’re not keen on getting paid less. After that, we’ll give you the lowdown on market events this week.
What is the Gender Pay Gap?
The Gender Pay Gap is the difference in pay between male and female workers. Insanely, and for no valid reason, women are generally found to be paid less than men.
One study on historical gender wage differences found that women in Southern Europe earned half that of unskilled men in the 500 years between 1300 and 1800.
Since then, the wage gap has started to close. In a report by the Joint Economic Committee of the US Congress, women’s median earnings in the country are said to have increased to 79% of men’s. There’s still a long way to go, however.
According to one study, genders in the US won’t reach parity until 2059.
Recently, the gender pay gap bot on Twitter has been causing a stir (which we love). It’s been retweeting ccompanies who celebrate #WomensDay #WomensRights and #EqualPay with some truths about their inequal pay gaps.
How does this impact the economy?
In a big way! According to the EU, the reversal of the gender pay gap would lead to the following.
- It will create 6 million jobs as a result of more women entering the economy because wages are more attractive.
- A larger workforce would lead to a big boost in production output capacity. A 5.5% increase in GDP per capita by 2050, worth €1,490 billion.
- GDP fluctuations would be much less impactful, with an estimated 0.2% increase in GDP per capita over the 2030–2050 period.
- Lower poverty rates, especially among the elderly.
- Increased confidence for women to move into leadership roles — which is obviously good for business.
So, all good! The EU calls this policy Gender Mainstreaming and, fortunately, it’s gaining momentum.
3 companies trying to close the gap
The tech sector is one of the largest and most competitive industries on the planet. Companies like Google and Amazon released reports on the pay gap in December 2022. The conclusion of which was that pay in their companies tended to be skewed in favour of men because of the lack of women in highly paid roles.
However, that doesn’t stop such companies from addressing the problem and trying to fix it. Here are 3 companies that have pledged to do exactly that.
#1 Airbnb
The company is aiming to have women represent half of its global staff by 2025. As an interesting side note, Female Airbnb hosts in the United States earn on average about 25% less per year than their male counterparts for their rentals, according to our new study. That’s more than US$4,000 in lower earnings per year.
#2 Stripe
As of June 2022, Stripe’s hourly mean gender pay gap was 0.3%, while the median was 3.3%. At the present moment, 45% of Stripe’s staff are female.
#3 TikTok
Where Stripe’s four pay sectors are all skewed very slightly in favour of men, TikTok’s lower and lower middle pay bands are slightly dominated by women. For the mean hourly pay gap, the percentage was 5% in favour of men, while the median was 1.4%. The company said it is “fully committed” to building on its progress so far to improve its diversity and inclusion.
Thoughts?
How do you feel about the gender pay gap? Can it be reversed faster than the 2050s? What else can be done? Let us know at @_contentworks, and please start following us while you’re there!
Top trading events week commencing 27.02.23
There’s a fair bit going on this week, here’s when and where you need to tune in.
Monday
● USD — Durable Goods Orders MoM (JAN)
Tuesday
● CAD — GDP Growth Rate Annualised (Q4); GDP Growth Rate QoQ (Q4)
● USD — CB Consumer Confidence (FEB)
Wednesday
● AUD — GDP Growth Rate YoY (Q4)
● CNY — NBS Manufacturing PMI (FEB)
● EUR — German Unemployment Change (FEB); German Unemployment Rate (FEB); German Inflation Rate YoY Preliminary (FEB)
● USD — ISM Manufacturing PMI (FEB)
Thursday
● EUR — Core Inflation Rate YoY Flash (FEB); ECB Monetary Policy Meeting Accounts
Friday
● USD — ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI (FEB)
Here at Contentworks we closely follow market movements and prep content that we think your traders would love to read. Let’s get you started right here.
Speak soon,
The Contentworks team
