Women In Health Sector Earn 24% Less Than Men, Finds Report

Last updated on July 15th, 2022 at 06:40 am

Women in the health and wellness sector face a larger gender pay gap, according to a new report. On average, women earn 24 per cent less than men, a larger gender pay gap than any other economic sector.

According to a joint report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Labour Organization (ILO), the world’s most comprehensive analysis on gender pay inequities in the health sector, a gender pay gap of nearly 20 percentage points is found, which jumps to 24 percentage points when accounting for factors like age, education and working time. Women are underpaid and wages are often lower in economic sectors where women are predominant.

Women were underpaid during the Covid-19 pandemic

The gender pay gap in the health and care sector: a global analysis in the time of Covid-19 claimed that women were underpaid in the Covid-19 pandemic. Women healthcare workers played a crucial role during the Covid-19 pandemic. Reportedly, there were only marginal improvements in pay equality between 2019 and 2020.

The report also found a wide variation in gender pay gaps in different countries. Within countries, gender pay gaps tend to be wider in higher pay categories and men are often over-represented. Women are often over-represented in the lower pay categories.

Working mothers in the health and wellness sector suffer additional penalties. During a woman’s reproductive years, employment and gender pay gaps in this sector increase drastically.

The report highlighted that the reasons why women are less paid than men with similar labour market profiles in the health and wellness sector remain unexplained by labour market factors.

Manuela Tomei, Director of Conditions of Work and Equality Department at the ILO, said, “The health and care sector has endured low pay in general and the Covid-19 pandemic exposed this situation.”