According to the latest available data, which covers 2021, the pay gap is 16.7%, six points lower than the 2018 figure (22.6%).
The wage gap has been reduced by six points in three years in the Basque Autonomous Community (CAV), reaching 16.7% in 2021, the last year for which data are available, as announced by the Deputy Lehendakari and the Minister of Employment and Labor of the Basque government, Idoia Mendia. At the same time, he has claimed the role of public policy in bringing about this trap and recalled that equality between women and men is of great importance. “a democratic cause of the first order and an engine of competitiveness”.
Mendia inaugurated the Equal Pay Forum on Wednesday in Bilbao and released this data on the occasion of the European Equal Pay Day commemorated next Thursday. Moreover, he has shown his satisfaction with the path he has taken, but he has imposed it “self-questioning what still needs to be done.”
The pay gap in Euskadi in 2021 was 16.7%, six points lower than the 2018 figure (22.6%), according to data published by the National Statistical Institute. “There are six fewer points in three years, a distance that has never been covered in such a short time before,” he emphasized. That is why it is so important to analyze “what made it possible to correct everything necessary until real equality”.
The deputy lehendakari has assured that equality, in addition to “being fair, is possible”, adding that, as has happened during this term, in those four years the distances have been reduced thanks to “decided government policy”.
Among these measures, he highlighted “the 54% increase in the interprofessional minimum wage, which mainly affects women and young people”, the obligation to implement equality plans for all companies with more than 50 employees, and, most recently: “the mechanisms for correcting deficits introduced in the last pension reform.”
On the other hand, Mendia has attributed the bias in contracts to this gap that still needs to be reduced, because “although the number of people with an indefinite employment relationship with their company has grown by seven points in just two years, almost the third part is part-time and the difference between women and men is almost 20 points.
Source: EITB
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
