Since 9:10 a.m. this Friday, women “work for free in Francee”, according to “Les Glorieuses”. And this because of the wage inequalities between women and men. “On average, in Europe, women earn 13% less than men, while in France it is 15.8%”indicates Friday, November 4 on franceinfo Rebecca Amsellem, economist and founder of the feminist newsletter “Les Glorieuses”.
franceinfo : This date falls one day later this year than last year. It means that there is a small improvement ?
Rebecca Amsellem : We cannot say that there has been a great change from year to year since the date depends both on this Eurostat statistic, which is updated every year, and also on the number of working days in the year. This year, for example, there are 253 working days [contre 254 l’an dernier] that’s why it falls today at 9:10. We are worse than the European average. On average in Europe, women earn 13% less than men. In France, it is 15.8%.
What explains these wage inequalities today? ?
There are three main reasons for this wage inequality. At first, this is called pure discrimination. It is the sexist biases that exist in our societies that mean that today, for equal positions, with equal experience, women will be offered positions that are less well paid than men. We are around 9% difference.
The second reason is the question of part-time work. Women tend to use part-time work more than men because they are the ones who will take care of relatives, children or elderly parents. However, part-timers are less well paid at the hourly rate than full-timers.
Finally, the third reason: there are fewer women in positions that are more economically valued in society, such as tech. When we talk about wage inequalities, we often tell women to turn to tech jobs and finally get out of feminized jobs that are less valued economically, namely care jobs. But if no one is working in tech, society continues to spin. On the other hand, if no one works in care or in the teaching profession, society no longer works. This is why we are proposing a revaluation of so-called feminized wages. For example, women represent 90% of the nursing corps or 65% of the teaching corps.
Precisely, what other measures would be effective, in your opinion?
We propose three measures, all three are effective. The first is what is somewhat called the zero euro measure which costs the State absolutely nothing: the principle of equal conditionality. It is highlighted in particular by the High Council for Equality between Women and Men. It is a principle that says that we will condition access to public markets (the first market anyway in France) that we will also condition access to public subsidies or loans guaranteed by the State to companies that respect equal pay. This makes it possible – at a minimum – to ensure that public funds are not used to accentuate wage inequalities.
I think that the State has more to do than companies, by also creating equivalent parental leave for both parents, as in Sweden. This would make it possible to work on this sexist bias. This would make it possible to work on another point: we realize that wage inequalities, if they are almost non-existent at the start of a career, tend to widen at the time of the age of the first child.
Leave a Comment