Gender Pay Gap in European Union Essay

In the contemporary world, it can generally be observed that the gender pay gap (GPG) between both men and women in a majority of nations has decreased significantly. In some places, the women end up taking home more than their male counterparts do, an indicator that the issue of gender equality is being highly regarded and observed by such nations. It is, nevertheless, apparent that in most countries especially those that are in the course of development, there is still a large gender pay gap. The European Union is one of the organizations that champion for the equality of all individuals regardless of their gender. Some member nations are, nonetheless, not devoid of the gender pay gap as will be illustrated. Contrary to this, a number of EU countries have a negligible GPG with a significant few experiencing a scenario where the Women earn significantly higher than the men. It is, however, apparent that GPG is existent among EU union countries as will be established by this study.

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The gender pay gap represents the difference in hourly earnings observable between men and women in the contemporary society. A recent study undertaken by the Office for National Statistics in the United Kingdom revealed that the GPG had reduced by 9.1% from the original 27.5% recorded a decade ago in 1997 ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). It has nevertheless been observed that if the pay gap is based on the statistics of full-time employees, then the GPG is 9.1%. This, nevertheless, differs in part-time jobs which appear to favor the women more owing to the fact that on average they get to earn 5.1% more("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). Most people confuse GPG with the issue of equal pay whereas the two are different. The latter is effective in the law which stipulates that individuals from both genders should be entitled to equal remunerations. Concurrently, GPG emerges owing to the fact that there are more individuals from one gender occupying positions of authority that entitle them to a higher pay.

Society often holds the notion that men are the "breadwinners" and thus this entitles them to higher pay compared to the women who in most cases appear to be the caregivers. Besides, most of the professions are gendered in one way or the other such that women often find themselves working in care-based environs that lead them to be paid less income (Rubery p.725). The GPG is very important owing to the fact that it ensures that entities focus more on entitling individuals from both genders to equal promotion opportunities. Besides, contrary to the popular beliefs that men should earn more, it is fundamental for parents to raise their children in a manner that makes them understand that neither is inferior irrespective of their gender. More often than not, men have been disallowed from engaging in home activities which are meant for the women, however, the modern world is working towards changing that and it is no wonder to see a find a man at home taking care of children or doing household chores. Conversely, a vast majority of women in employment suffer from inferiority complex and hence most of them do not seek high official positions in the management of the entity. They are led to believe that such positions are reserved for men.

It is often implied that women are not assertive when situations require them to seek a better paying position or job compared to men. This is one of the chief reasons why most of them retain minority positions in the working environment hence contributing to the GPG. Alternatively, in most Companies, men are considered more for promotion compared to women because the latter is often eligible for maternity leave at one point and, therefore, the bosses fear that her absence may cause an adverse effect on the Company. It is also evident that most career women spend less time with their families. This is likely to affect the upbringing of the children which is why most critics argue that women should be socialized in a manner that ensures they adopt the gendered role in any family setting. It is important to consider the gender pay gap since this helps people to realize the best course of action to take in order to ensure that impartiality prevails in the employment sector as opposed to the situation in most countries. In some places, discrimination is a common phenomenon. Some of the cases involve the wrongful dismissal of women when on maternity leave. According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (ECHR), one in every nine new mothers is terminated from work while they are on leave (Rubery p.719). Controlling the GPG is, nonetheless, likely to be a daunting task since companies in the private sector are not liable for any form of punishment for perpetuating income inequality among their workers. Besides, in order to justify their actions, many of them argue that men work better compared to the women. Additionally, the society is still filled with some of the traditional dogmas that existed in the past indicating that the man commands more respect since he also occupies the most significant role in a home setting. In most cases, some employers seek to know whether a man has a family before they promote him to a higher position of authority since many of them believe that if a man can manage a family then he can be entrusted to take care of an entire Company.

In reference to the European Union member countries, it is evident that GPG has plagued a number of nations with some being able to sustain the demand for equal pay among both genders sufficiently. A significant difference exists between EU countries. For example, some such as Hungary have a greater GPG that exceeds 20% while for others the percentage is less than 10% ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). Conversely, Estonia, on the other hand, exhibits one of the highest GPG`s which is above 30% ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). The gender pay gap is only relatable to the individuals who are in working capacities and can, therefore, not be used to indicate the general inequality existent within the society. It is not always true to imply that GPG results from the discrimination of women. This is due to the fact that some countries exhibit greater GPG since there are fewer women in employment opportunities compared to the men. Italy is a good example of such a country where the majority of the unskilled force is composed of women, whereas the men take up professional roles.

On the average scale, data obtained from 2016, shows that the GPG for EU nations stood at 16%. Romania and Italy accounted for the lowest GPG whereas Estonia stood out from the rest by bearing the highest percentage ("Women in Europe earned on average 16% less than Men in 2016"). A critical view into this matter reveals that the women generally earned 84 cents for each euro that any man is bound to make while working for a duration of one hour. The statistics published by Eurostat showed that the gender pay gap was lowest in Romania at 5.2%, closely followed by Italy which recorded a 5.3% GPG ("Women in Europe earned on average 16% less than Men in 2016"). This greatly contrasted to a number of other nations such as Estonia, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Finland and Latvia which had a GPG of 25.3, 21.5, 21.8, 20.1, 19.0, 17.4, and 17.0 respectively ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics").

While comparing the aforementioned nations, it is evident that the gender pay gap may have emerged as a result of many issues. For instance, it could imply that the women are constricted to particular sectors of the country`s economy. This applies to Estonia, Finland, and Czech Republic ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). Conversely, it could also mean that the female gender is used to working on a part-time basis as can be observed in countries such as Austria and Germany. It is, nevertheless, important to note that despite recording the highest GPG, Estonia`s percentage has been on the decline over the past five years recording a 2.0% decline ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). The same applies to Germany which in 2011 had a GPG of 22.4% indicating that the rate has declined by 0.9% ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). In addition to this, Czech Republic also recorded a decline of 0.8 during the same duration. Based on the aforementioned list, other nations which recorded such an improvement are, Austria at 3.4%, Slovakia 1.1%, and Finland 1.7% ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). Conversely, Latvia showed an increased GPG which was 14.1% in 2011 hence entailing that there has been a 2.9% increase since then.

The European Union countries bearing the greatest GDP are Germany, United Kingdom, France, and Italy. Owing to this, there is no doubt that the nations are part of the most developed countries in the union. Despite being one of the largest economies, Germany has a significant GPG of 13.0% in the public sector and 24.0% among private entities ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). This is in comparison to a lesser economy such as Romania which has 9.9% and 6.8% in the public and private sectors respectively, it is apparent that most of the already developed nations bear some of the greatest GPG ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). While other countries are working towards ensuring that either gender is subjected to equal employment opportunities, the big countries appear to be less concerned about such issues. This, however, does not apply to all the countries since in Italy the GPG IS 4.4% for the public domain and 17.9% for the private capacities both of which are relatively good ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). Another example of great disparities between both genders in the employment sector is the United Kingdom which has a gender pay gap of 24.4% and 22.2 in the public and private sectors respectively. This is surprising since, in most of the other economies, the GPG for the private economic sector is always higher compared to that in the public segment. It could be implied that the government is not doing enough to contain the situation.

It is apparent that not many people are aware of the idea regarding having to pay individuals equally for the same amount of work. For instance, in Europe, 76% of individuals do not know that every entity is required to pay equal remunerations to both genders working at the same level of work ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). While comparing the GPG between both sectors, it is apparent that the accessibility of tertiary education is part of the reason why the gap between both genders is very large. For instance, in the EU, there is a 9.5% gap between the males and females who have gone through tertiary institutions ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). According to the data obtained, it is apparent that only Germany had a negligible tertiary education attainment at 0.4 %. The largest gap was obtained from Latvia which was -26.0% and an indicator that the more developed a nation was the lesser the gap in terms of those who had tertiary education. In addition to this, individuals between 30 and 34 years are expected to constitute the largest number of employed people in the labor market. It is, however, worthy to note that out of this, only 25.6% of Romanians had attained tertiary education. Countries with a greater number of individuals between the aforementioned age brackets who had attained such education were Lithuania at 58.7% and Luxembourg 54.6% ("Gender Pay Gap Statistics"). This is, nevertheless, not a real indicator of the gender gap since the majority of employed individuals in most of the developed do not have a high regard for tertiary education.

The gender pay gap was also compared based on age among all the above-mentioned nations. It emerged that individuals below 25 years of age in the Czech Republic averaged an 11.4 GPG. Other age brackets included are 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and above 64 years, all which displayed a 13.8%, 27.4%, 23.8%,...