Pay inequity: Women earn 24% less than men in healthcare

According to a new joint report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the World Health Organization, women in the health and wellness sector face a larger gender pay gap than men in other economic sectors, earning on average 24% less than male peers (WHO). The report, which is the most comprehensive analysis of gender pay inequities in health, finds a raw gender pay gap of about 20 percentage points, which increases to 24 percentage points when age, education, and working time are taken into account. This demonstrates that women are underpaid in comparison to men for their labour market attributes.

Much of the wage disparity remains unexplained, possibly due to discrimination against women, who make up 67 per cent of health and care workers globally. The report also discovers that wages in the health and care sector are generally lower than in other economic sectors. This is consistent with the observation that wages are frequently lower in economic sectors dominated by women. Even with the Covid-19 pandemic and the critical role played by health and care workers, there were only marginal improvements in pay equality between 2019 and 2020.

MORE CAN BE DONE TO FIX GAPS: REPORT
It also discovers a wide variation in gender pay gaps across countries, implying that pay disparities in the sector are not unavoidable and that more can be done to close these gaps. Gender pay gaps within countries tend to be wider in higher pay categories, where men outnumber women. Women are overrepresented in lower-paying jobs. Mothers who work in the health and care industries appear to face additional penalties. Employment and gender pay gaps in the sector increase significantly during a woman’s reproductive years.

These disparities then persist throughout a woman’s working life. According to the report, a more equitable sharing of family responsibilities between men and women could lead to women making different occupational choices in many cases. The study also looks at the factors that contribute to the sector’s gender pay disparity. Differences in age, education, working hours, and men’s and women’s participation in the public and private sectors only address a portion of the issue.

‘TIME FOR DECISIVE POLICY ACTIONS’
The reasons why women are less paid than men with similar labour market profiles in the health and care sector across the world remain unexplained by labour market factors, a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) says. ‘The time has arrived for decisive policy action,’ says Manuela Tomei, Director of Conditions of Work and Equality Department at the ILO. The time has arrived for decisive policy action to improve working conditions for health and care workers, says the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Ivrea Tomei. ‘We cannot have better-quality health services without better and fairer working conditions, including fairer wages,’ he said.

MAJORITY OF HEALTHCARE WORKERS ARE WOMEN’
‘Women comprise the majority of workers in the health and care sector, yet in far too many countries systemic biases are resulting in pernicious pay penalties,’ said Jim Campbell, WHO Director of Health Workforce. ‘The evidence and analysis in this ground-breaking report must inform governments, employers and workers to take effective action,’ he added.