European women earn 16.3% less than men on their payslip. It is the European Union (EU) which says so in a report. This rate is equivalent to saying that women work 59 days without being paid. In other words, if we remove these 59 days of pay, it is as if the women worked for free since Monday, November 2 and that the men, them, continued to be paid normally until the end of the year. “Monday November 2 marks the day of the year when women in the European Union stop being paid, while men continue to earn money until December 31,” say Frans Timmermans, Mariane Thyssen and Vera Jourov. These three European Commissioners have chosen this comparison to symbolize the persistence of wage inequalities between the sexes.
“Equality between men and women is a fundamental value of the European Union, but this day reminds us that it is not a fundamental reality”, remind the European commissioners in a press release.
59 days of unpaid work means that 1 euro earned for a man is equal to 84 cents for a woman, for the same job.
The European Union underlines these injustices and sweeps aside the commonly held ideas that are used to justify these differences in salary treatment. For example, men are not more qualified: today 60% of graduates from European universities are women.
Another stereotype: if women earn less, it is because they are moving into much less paid jobs. A still false assertion, points out the EU which recalls that the differences in wages remain in similar professions, at equivalent levels of study, and this whatever the economic sector and the profession.
A normal difference, according to men?
What do men think of these wage inequalities? Men wouldn’t be too worried about it. It’s rather the opposite which could upset them even depress them, that is to say the fact that women earn better than them, according to a Belgian study from Ghent University, published in 2014. “In two-income households, the fact that a woman works full time can cause more agitation and poorer mental health in her partner, and all the more so if she receives a higher salary. higher than him, “said Piete Bracke, professor of sociology at the University of Ghent and author of this study.
>> To read also: Household chores: women always do more housework than men
Half of women ready for sex strike to share household chores
Sex: global warming, a threat to libido
