Brazil: Women earn on average 20.5% less than men

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Women earn about 20% less than men in Brazil. The wage gap between genders remains high even when comparing workers with the same education, age profile, and occupation category, according to a survey by IDados consultancy, based on IBGE’s National Household Sample Survey.

According to the study, women earned on average 20.50% less than men in the 4th quarter of 2021, against 19.70% less by the end of 2020.

As shown by IBGE, the average income from work shrank 10.7% in one year, to R$2,447 (US$479), reaching in the 4th quarter of 2021 the lowest value of the historical series. However, the drop in the average income from the main job was more intense for women (11.25%), while the decrease for men (10.42%) was below the total average in the country.

Although the difference in average income between genders has been showing a tendency to decrease in the last few years, the survey shows that when comparing the income per hour worked among professionals with the same education, color, age profile, and in the same sector of activity and occupation category, inequality remains stagnant at the 20% level. In the 4th quarter of 2021, it stood at 20.3%.

“When we compare comparable groups, women still earn 20% less. It is a structural problem in our society that is persisting. It is worrisome because, at the same time, women have a higher education level than men,” says Thais Barcellos, a researcher from IDados consultancy and author of the survey.

In the 4th quarter of last year, employed women had an average of 10.2 years of schooling and men, 9.8 years. The number of hours worked per week was 37.3 among women, on average, and 41.9 among men.

“Women, in general, work fewer paid hours. But even when we compare a woman with a man who has the same education, the same age, the same color, in the same sector of activity, and with the same occupational grouping, this woman still earns less,” explains the researcher.

UNEMPLOYMENT IS HIGHER AMONG WOMEN

Despite the drop in unemployment in the last few months and the increase in occupied people, unemployment is historically higher among women. Most working-aged Brazilian women are outside the labor market or in precarious jobs.

According to the latest IBGE survey, of the 12 million unemployed Brazilians, 6.5 million are women. The unemployment rate for men stood at 9% at the end of 2021, while that of women was 13.9%.

“Men manage to get into occupations with higher salaries and more formal jobs, while women, often because they work a double or triple shift, can’t bargain and accept worse conditions. Surveys show that men with children are less penalized than women with children,” highlights Barcellos.

According to the researcher, salary inequality is a structural problem in the Brazilian labor market. It reflects society’s machismo and the absence of more policies that favor the entrance of women in higher-paid occupations and training.

“It’s not simply using the word machismo, but seeing how this is reflected in our society, in the maternity leave, for the woman who needs to dedicate herself in domestic chores more than a man and in the end is as productive as the man at work,” she says. “There is a calculation that I always like to do: since women earn 20% less, they could work 20% less in the year. Just until October 18. It’s as if every year women work 74 days for free.”