2024-03-11 22:01:56
Factors such as childcare, the nursery law and salaries influence the increase in labor inequality between men and women in our country.
The World Bank published the report called Women, business and the lawwhich reveals the shocking gender gap that exists in the labor market between men and women.
With alarming figures, where Chile is no exception, the study revealed that the gap is much wider than previously thought, since Women have only two-thirds of the labor rights that men enjoy, even in the richest countries on the planet.
World Bank information studied 190 economies and measured the enabling environment for women’s economic opportunities.
In that sense, the World Bank found that women are protected, on average, by only the 64% of the legal protections available to men.
In conversation with THE DYNAMOJuan Bravo, director of the Economic Context Observatory of the Diego Portales University (UDP), indicated that “There is no country in the world where there is full gender equality.”. However, there are countries that are leaders in this matter and are much more advanced, such as the case of Iceland.”
This country has a gender gap of 91.2%, a figure that places it in the first place in the world where there is greater equality.
“Although Chile is far behind compared to the leading countries, With this difference there is a fairly large space to continue advancing in reducing gender gaps,” added Bravo.
Gender gap in Chile
According to the World Bank report, Chile has a gender gap of 77.5%a figure that in the opinion of the UDP academic is explained because “the workplace is one of the fundamental causes behind the gender gaps in Chile.”
The current labor legislation in Chile replicates the cultural logic of absence of co-responsibility through labor laws, where care is granted only to mothers. As there are no equal rights for men and women in this matter, hiring women becomes more expensive and this is precisely what is behind the gender gaps in the workplace,” explains Bravo.
Therefore, “to the extent that there is no progress in granting related equal labor rights for mothers and fathers it will be impossible to make progress in reducing gender gaps“he added.
The director of the UDP Economic Context Observatory, stated to THE DYNAMO that it is key “that in emblematic laws such as that of the nursery, the design of how the benefit is delivered is modified, precisely to avoid disinhibiting the formal hiring of women. It is incomprehensible that the bill that reforms this benefit has not been possible for so many years.”
“Chile must advance equal rights for men and women when it comes to childcare. To the extent that this does not happen, the gaps will continue to remain in the workplace,” she stated.
Women’s salaries are lower than men’s
A study prepared by Laborum, focused on gender perspectives in the world of work, revealed that 60% of people in Chile consider that men’s salaries are higher than women’s.
The head of marketing of Laborum, Carolina Molinaro, assured that these figures go hand in hand “with what our report on salary claims records, which shows that the salary requirement of women is between 14% and 15% lower than that of men, which reflects a structural inequality in the labor market.”
Along with this, 33% of human resources professionals who were surveyed in Chile indicated that Gender is a determining factor in accessing a job.
In that sense, 55% of experts in Chile pointed out that the majority of workers in their companies are men, while Only 27% said they had a majority female staff.