The report of CPA Ferrerehe Equal Pay Day (EPD), determined that the Uruguayan women They work up to 60 days for free a year if their income is compared to the salary of the men for the same employment, resulting in a gap of 16.2% in the country.
The latest data from the report indicates that the income gap between men and women increased in Uruguay compared to the previous year, which remained at 14%, although it is slightly higher than the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 where the gap reached 15%.
“Given the particularities of the years 2021 and 2022, the asymmetric effects of the pandemic on the labor market and the ‘scars’ that the pandemic could have had on the labor market (known in the literature as the ‘scarring effect’), it will be necessary continue to monitor the evolution of the income gap in the coming years,” said the economist from CPA Ferrere, María Inés Mailhos.
In that sense, according to the report, the Uruguayan women They must work for free until March 1 to receive income while men begin to receive it from January 1.
Difference by sectors
As Mailhos explained, in the case of Uruguay Strong heterogeneities are observed in the sectors depending on the activity and geographical regions. In the educational sector, the gap reaches 10%, while in sectors such as manufacturing and human health care and social assistance, the gap triples and is close to 30%.
For its part, regarding geographical distribution, the wage gap intensifies in the city of Montevideo and the metropolitan area with 21%. Meanwhile, in the north center of the country, in departments such as Peach and Tacuarembó and in the northern interior – Artigas, Rivera, Cerro Largo, Treinta y Tres – the gap is much smaller and reaches 7% in both regions.
What is Equal Pay Day about?
He EPD is carried out annually by the firm CPA Ferrere in three countries in the region: Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia. It studies the income gap between men and women that exists in these countries.
In the calculation of EPD It uses “a multivariate approach that compares hourly earnings with people’s sex, along with a series of controls that can affect this relationship, such as years of education, age or occupation.” “From the above arises a coefficient associated with the fact of being a woman,” adds the official website.
This report is carried out through different surveys: the Continuous Household Survey of the first half of 2023 for Uruguay, the Permanent Continuous Household Survey of 2022 for Paraguay and the 2021 Household Survey for Bolivia.
Source: Ambito
