Urgent: Article 23.2 of Human Rights is being violated because there is no equal pay.
Feb 22, 2023
Urgent: Article 23.2 of Human Rights is being violated because there is no equal pay.
Feb 22, 2023
According to Amnesty International, women in Spain earn on average 13.5% less than men, but face higher prices due to the so-called ‘pink tax’.
Human rights are at risk and at least one of them is being violated. This is none other than Article 23.2 set out in the Universal Declaration, which states that “everyone has the right, without any discrimination, to equal pay for equal work.” The data shows quite the opposite of this principle, as in Spain women earn on average 13.5% less than men for doing the same job, or in other words, they work approximately 48 days for free, according to Amnesty International. Similar percentages are found in other European countries and worsen as we move away from this continent, as explained by the United Nations (UN).
This pay gap changes depending on age, with 36 years marked as a key point in a study conducted by the Tax Agency. At this age, women’s pay is already 8% lower than men’s and rises to 22.5% by the time they reach 55 years old. However, the labor inequality women face goes beyond pay. Many confront the well-known glass ceiling or sticky floor, which the European Commission says causes a “lack of female representation in senior business positions.”
Possible origins
Women entered the labor market in the late 18th century due to the Industrial Revolution, historians date, and were already faced with wage and rights inequality. One of the causes that may explain this and which gender professionals point to is the “different access to education.” Others, such as the UN, highlight the system that causes women to be “relegated” to care work, which often “falls outside labor law coverage.” Added to this is motherhood and the fact that from pregnancy many women are forced to reduce their working hours to balance family and professional life. Following several studies, that organization concluded that “working mothers receive lower wages than those without children and the difference increases proportionally with each additional child.”
However, if paid and unpaid work hours are combined, women work “longer working days,” as noted in a report by the European Commission. Experts use the term “double shift” to refer to women who, after completing their paid work, must also take on “reproductive work” tasks related to the well-being and care of the family. They even define the “triple shift” when unpaid work goes beyond limits and women must attend school meetings or manage medical issues.
Lower salary, higher expenses
As the data show, the salary women receive is lower; however, numerous analyses affirm that “life is more expensive for them.” The long hours between work and personal life cause them to be “subjected to high levels of stress” and they may suffer from mental disorders, cardiovascular and bone discomfort… leading to “higher expenses” in medical treatments. We must not forget female biology and menstruation, which requires hygienic products and painkillers to reduce discomfort. According to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU), the purchase of these items during the average 40 years of menstruation can exceed 2,000 euros.
There are many other products that have a “different price” depending on the gender of the user, and this is when what specialists call the “pink tax” is applied. Various reports on this topic state that women pay more for the same product just because it has a label saying “for women.” Examples include deodorants, gels, perfumes, skin care creams, or washing gloves, which increase in price as size decreases. The New York Consumer Affairs Office conducted a study to demonstrate this and, after analyzing 800 products across various categories, concluded that the price increase was up to 50%, causing women to pay on average $1,400 more per year.
This phenomenon is also seen in services like some hair salons, where it costs a woman twice as much to get a haircut, or in dry cleaners, where the cost of a garment labeled as feminine has a surcharge even though the treatment is the same. Celeste Kauffman, a lawyer from the University of California, points out that gender stereotypes or social pressures placed on women about their “beauty” make it expected that they buy certain products because this aspect “has a price,” or that they have a large wardrobe, noting that “women’s fashion changes faster.”
Besides these expenses, many women allocate a large part of their income to “the education, food, and health of their family,” as published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This whole context causes women to invest 29% less than men and lose that opportunity to “generate savings for the future.” This is reported in a banking report by N26 after surveying more than 16,000 women, who confessed they want to increase their investment, but just under half of them cannot do so due to “lack of money or knowledge.”
To reverse the gender gap, the European Union established equal pay as a fundamental right 45 years ago. As the figures show, it has not yet been achieved, and they continue working on systems to monitor companies’ salary data, among other actions. If this continues, the UN considers it would take “257 years to achieve economic gender equality worldwide.” If that happens, it would bring “significant benefits” because poverty levels would fall, more women would reach leadership positions, and productivity in companies would increase, recalls the Observatory of Equality and Employment. They themselves do not want to overlook that, after all, equal pay is a right and recognition of the work millions of women perform every day.
Useful links:
Analysis of the gender pay gap in Spain. Identifying causes to find solutions. Prepared by CEOE and PWC. https://www.pwc.es/es/publicaciones/
diversidad/analisis-brecha-salarial-genero-espana-ceos-pwc.pdf
How to combat the gender pay gap between men and women in the European Union. Compiled by the European Commission. https://www.inmujeres.gob.es/
publicacioneselectronicas/documentacion/
Women and investing, a gender gap study by N26. https://blog.stockcrowdin.com/las-mujeres-y-la-inversi%C3%B3n-estudio-de-la-brecha-de-g%C3%A9nero
According to Amnesty International, women in Spain earn on average 13.5% less than men, but face higher prices due to the so-called ‘pink tax’.
Human rights are at risk and at least one of them is being violated. This is none other than Article 23.2 set out in the Universal Declaration, which states that “everyone has the right, without any discrimination, to equal pay for equal work.” The data shows quite the opposite of this principle, as in Spain women earn on average 13.5% less than men for doing the same job, or in other words, they work approximately 48 days for free, according to Amnesty International. Similar percentages are found in other European countries and worsen as we move away from this continent, as explained by the United Nations (UN).
This pay gap changes depending on age, with 36 years marked as a key point in a study conducted by the Tax Agency. At this age, women’s pay is already 8% lower than men’s and rises to 22.5% by the time they reach 55 years old. However, the labor inequality women face goes beyond pay. Many confront the well-known glass ceiling or sticky floor, which the European Commission says causes a “lack of female representation in senior business positions.”
Possible origins
Women entered the labor market in the late 18th century due to the Industrial Revolution, historians date, and were already faced with wage and rights inequality. One of the causes that may explain this and which gender professionals point to is the “different access to education.” Others, such as the UN, highlight the system that causes women to be “relegated” to care work, which often “falls outside labor law coverage.” Added to this is motherhood and the fact that from pregnancy many women are forced to reduce their working hours to balance family and professional life. Following several studies, that organization concluded that “working mothers receive lower wages than those without children and the difference increases proportionally with each additional child.”
However, if paid and unpaid work hours are combined, women work “longer working days,” as noted in a report by the European Commission. Experts use the term “double shift” to refer to women who, after completing their paid work, must also take on “reproductive work” tasks related to the well-being and care of the family. They even define the “triple shift” when unpaid work goes beyond limits and women must attend school meetings or manage medical issues.
Lower salary, higher expenses
As the data show, the salary women receive is lower; however, numerous analyses affirm that “life is more expensive for them.” The long hours between work and personal life cause them to be “subjected to high levels of stress” and they may suffer from mental disorders, cardiovascular and bone discomfort… leading to “higher expenses” in medical treatments. We must not forget female biology and menstruation, which requires hygienic products and painkillers to reduce discomfort. According to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU), the purchase of these items during the average 40 years of menstruation can exceed 2,000 euros.
There are many other products that have a “different price” depending on the gender of the user, and this is when what specialists call the “pink tax” is applied. Various reports on this topic state that women pay more for the same product just because it has a label saying “for women.” Examples include deodorants, gels, perfumes, skin care creams, or washing gloves, which increase in price as size decreases. The New York Consumer Affairs Office conducted a study to demonstrate this and, after analyzing 800 products across various categories, concluded that the price increase was up to 50%, causing women to pay on average $1,400 more per year.
This phenomenon is also seen in services like some hair salons, where it costs a woman twice as much to get a haircut, or in dry cleaners, where the cost of a garment labeled as feminine has a surcharge even though the treatment is the same. Celeste Kauffman, a lawyer from the University of California, points out that gender stereotypes or social pressures placed on women about their “beauty” make it expected that they buy certain products because this aspect “has a price,” or that they have a large wardrobe, noting that “women’s fashion changes faster.”
Besides these expenses, many women allocate a large part of their income to “the education, food, and health of their family,” as published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This whole context causes women to invest 29% less than men and lose that opportunity to “generate savings for the future.” This is reported in a banking report by N26 after surveying more than 16,000 women, who confessed they want to increase their investment, but just under half of them cannot do so due to “lack of money or knowledge.”
To reverse the gender gap, the European Union established equal pay as a fundamental right 45 years ago. As the figures show, it has not yet been achieved, and they continue working on systems to monitor companies’ salary data, among other actions. If this continues, the UN considers it would take “257 years to achieve economic gender equality worldwide.” If that happens, it would bring “significant benefits” because poverty levels would fall, more women would reach leadership positions, and productivity in companies would increase, recalls the Observatory of Equality and Employment. They themselves do not want to overlook that, after all, equal pay is a right and recognition of the work millions of women perform every day.
Useful links:
Analysis of the gender pay gap in Spain. Identifying causes to find solutions. Prepared by CEOE and PWC. https://www.pwc.es/es/
diversidad/analisis-brecha-salarial-genero-espana-ceos-pwc.pdf
How to combat the gender pay gap between men and women in the European Union. Compiled by the European Commission. https://www.inmujeres
.gob.es/publicacioneselectronicas
Women and investing, a gender gap study by N26. https://blog.stockcrowdin.com/
las-mujeres-y-la-inversi%C3%B3n-estudio-de-la-brecha-de-g%C3%A9nero
Being a woman in our capitalist and sexist society is costly. Article written by Celeste Kauffman on the ‘pink tax’. https://www.dejusticia.org
