New report shows 'massive' gender gap — along with challenges around pay transparency, safety, retirement
Women are only earning 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to a new report, which highlighted the global gender gap in workplaces across the world.
The World Bank's latest report analysed the actual outcomes for women in 190 economies and found that the global gender gap is much greater than initially thought.
"The gender gap for women in the global workplace is massive - in fact, much wider than previously thought," the report read.
According to the report, 98 economies have enacted legislation mandating equal pay for women for work of equal value. However, only 35 economies have adopted pay transparency measures or enforced mechanisms to address the pay gap.
"Experts perceive that approximately half of women in the examined economies have equality when it comes to pay and access to high-paying jobs," the report read.
Global gender gap
Pay is just one of the 10 indicators that the report assessed as it looked into the frameworks supporting implementation of the law.
Implementation of the law is strongly dependent on the frameworks supporting it, according to the report, which found that economies, on average, have established less than 40% of the systems needed for full implementation of on equal opportunity laws and frameworks.
"It is more urgent than ever to accelerate efforts to reform laws and enact public policies that empower women to work and start and grow businesses," said Tea Trumbic, the report's lead author, in a statement.
The report found women still have significant obstacles in entrepreneurship, nationality rights, as well as retirement.
Safety is also another indicator where economies are weak, according to the report.
Although 151 economies have laws prohibiting sexual harassment at work, just 39 have legislation barring such behaviour in public spaces, which often prevents women from using public transportation to get to work.
Such obstacles are preventing women from participating in the global workforce, with barely half of them able to join in.
"This is not just unfair - it's wasteful," Trumbic said. "Increasing women's economic participation is the key to amplifying their voices and shaping decisions that affect them directly. Countries simply cannot afford to sideline half of their population."
