The monthly salary difference between women and men in the European healthcare sector reaches 28 percent to their detriment, according to a report prepared by specialists from the Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The study, which analyzes data from 43 European countries, confirms that women make up nearly 77 percent of the staff dedicated to healthcare and caregiving. Despite this, the document details that they earn 19 percent less per hour than their male colleagues and that this gap widens significantly as income levels rise.
"Women constitute the majority of the staff that keeps European healthcare systems running, but they earn less than their male counterparts, a gap that worsens throughout a working life," summarized the director of the Health Systems Division of the WHO Regional Office for Europe, Dr. Natasha Azzopardi Muscat.
According to the expert, "this translates into lower pensions, less economic security in old age, and a greater risk of poverty for women who have dedicated their working lives to caring for others." "It is not a coincidence, nor is it related to qualifications," she explained, adding that "women are paid less for the same work and are overlooked for better-paying positions."
The report specifies that, in the lowest-paid jobs, women earn about 2 percent less per hour than men, while in the highest-paying positions, the difference skyrockets to nearly 23 percent. "In theory, the training and experience of women would allow them to earn a little more than men in the best-paying positions, but in practice, they earn less," it states.
Women in healthcare management, but with lower salaries
Although in the healthcare and caregiving field the proportion of women in management positions exceeds that of other economic sectors, these positions are worse paid: the average is 22 euros per hour compared to 24.7 euros in other productive areas. The analysis concludes that, the greater the female presence in a job within the sector, the lower the remuneration tends to be, regardless of the skills or responsibilities associated.
"Most of this gap is not due to women working fewer hours, being younger, or working in different areas of the sector," Muscat has stated, who has assured that it "is due to how the sector values women's work." "Age, education, hours of work, and employment in the public sector versus the private sector only help to explain part of it," he declared.
The study precisely adjusts these four factors and observes that the hourly wage difference is reduced to 6 percent and the monthly to 10 percent. However, the rest of the gap is not justified by the available indicators and is concentrated mainly at the upper end of the salary scale, where it explains practically the entire distance between what women and men earn.
"Wage inequality in a sector of this size affects hiring, staff retention, and the number of women reaching senior management and leadership positions, with repercussions on the health systems that depend on them," the research concludes. In this scenario, the WHO in Europe urges member states to make it mandatory to produce reports on the gender pay gap that go beyond age or subsector of activity.
The organization also proposes to strengthen standards on equal pay, accompanied by effective mechanisms for supervision and enforcement; to dismantle structural barriers such as the limited availability of mentoring and the unequal burdens of care; and to revalue work in health and care.
"This is not a complicated problem to solve, but a matter of will," Muscat has emphasized, who has stated that "transparency, law enforcement, and the elimination of barriers that prevent women from accessing senior management positions" are required.