#10M: Now pay what corresponds… to start


The wage gap is a complex problem that is associated with different causes. Some hypotheses are the risks that employers perceive around motherhood, the low probability of accessing leadership positions, entering jobs with lower salaries and negotiation difficulties… Therefore, it is difficult to think that by decree women will earn the same that men overnight”, Fátima Masse, director of the IMCO Inclusive Society.

A few weeks ago, communications, opinion texts and invitations from many companies began to arrive in my inbox to talk about the wonders of the programs they have to boost participation and women development and provide them with optimal conditions in their work centers.

As he approached March 8the list of electronic correspondence was growing, communication strategies that sought to hang on the International Women’s Day to promote your employer brand. In most cases, as Mercer has classified it, these are “reactive companies”, which are those that present actions and reinforce their position only on important dates, in this case as #8M and #9M, but that they do not always translate into real changes for the benefit of your staff. In this condition, added to that of companies that do practically nothing in the matter, are approximately six out of 10 companies in Mexico.

What happens the day after dates like March 8 and 9? Women return to their work reality, the same one that presents them with great obstacles, despite the numerous announcements made by their employers to try to position themselves as a great place to work for them. And as they say that a button is enough to show, the button on which I intend to reflect aloud —or in writing— on this occasion is that of the wage gap and the companies’ intention to keep it that way.

For practical purposes, the wage gap It is the difference in what two people are paid to do the same job. By adding the gender component, the OECD explains that it is “the difference between the wages of men and women expressed as a percentage of the male wage.”

Data on the gender pay gap there are several. For example, in OECD countries the average of this difference is 11.6%; Mexico, from this measurement, has a 9.6%, much better than South Korea, Israel and Japan, with levels above 22%; but above Colombia, Belgium, Romania and Bulgaria, with a figure below 4 percent.

Based on the ENOE data, the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (Imco) estimates a wage gap of 13.8% In the country, this means that a woman earns an average of 86 pesos for every 100 pesos that a man earns. For them, the average monthly income is 7,871 pesos; for them, 6,786 pesos. This is the mean for the entire employed populationformal and informal.

Meanwhile, if the data for those who work in the private formal sector are taken into account, the IMSS numbers show an average gender wage gap of 12.4 percent. While the daily salary of men at the start of 2022 is 490.49 pesos, that of women is 429.48 pesos.

Now, this is the average data. According to the report One aspiration, two realities: Promoting gender equality in Mexico from McKinsey. The higher the woman climbs in the hierarchy of a company, the greater the gap. The salary difference between genders is 8% in income levels and this increases to 22% in CEO positions, this is because in the vast majority of cases salary offer of the companies is lower for them, which in advance limits any possible negotiation.

Data of the gender pay gap There are several in the country, but they all have something in common: they show that there is indeed a real difference in the pay that men and women receive, in many cases for performing the same tasks.

A group of legislators from all parties has tried to address this issue from their court. A great effort was made in March of last year in the Senate of the Republic by approving a package of reforms to 13 federal laws to guarantee the equal pay between men and women in both the public and private sectors.

The measure was endorsed by all parliamentary groups in the Upper House, but has been frozen in the Chamber of Deputies for a year. Much of the resistance to see the light of this reform comes precisely from a part of business sector, for the costs that this would imply. Many of which, with a whole public relations strategy, seek at the same time to position their employer brand each year for March 8.

As Fátima Masse points out in the quote that opens this space, the wage gap It is a complex issue and not because a reform is published in the Official Gazette of the Federation the next day, women will earn the same as men. However, the frozen project in San Lázaro could lay the groundwork for recognizing the problem and beginning to address it. Paying what is fair and the same for equal work, regardless of the gender of the person, should be something basic in companies, the rest is just a reactive campaign… and opportunistic.



Leave a Comment