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‘Male-female Remuneration differences’

The continued downturn puts the brakes on equality
 

• Male managers earn 17.3% more than their female counterparts
• Only 11.6% of management posts are held by women
• Our close neighbours France and Italy rank higher than us on equal pay.

Madrid, March 7th, 2012.- The salary gap between men and women in the management field has climbed back up to 17.3%.  In executive posts it is 10.6% whereas in employee positions men earn 15% more on average. In 2012 we have seen a return to figures of previous years, with the exception of last year’s “apparent improvement”. What has basically changed? The effects of the long term economic crisis created a kind of mirage phenomenon as far as equality is concerned. The salary gap between women and men narrowed not because women were being more highly considered professionally and salary wise but essentially because there was a downshift in men"s salaries in comparison with the previous years. The duration of the economic downturn has put a sudden break on the headway achieved in equality prior to 2008. In this respect, Ernest Poveda, president of ICSA Grupo, points out that it is a tremendous mistake “to disdain the talent of what adds up to half the population”. It is obvious that the crisis has limited people’s salary expectations but in any case this shouldn"t mean greater gender inequality"As far as the percentage of women in management posts is concerned the figures continue to be disappointing: the percentage of women has dropped to 11.6% at the same low levels as the previous year, taking into account that before the downturn it was almost 20%. Aline Masuda, EADA professor and researcher points to the fact that women usually tend to sacrifice their career in order to reconcile work and family. “Social stereotypes are still very strong in Spain.  In fact, on a social level women continue to take on the moral responsibility for the children whereas if a man wants to reconcile work with family this is looked down upon”. She goes on to add that “there is implicit discrimination and we continue to conform to pre-established cultural models. A boss’s strong points are usually associated with masculine qualities: competitiveness, assertiveness, aggressiveness and authority.” These are two of the main conclusions of the 6th Male-female remuneration differences report presented by the ICSA and EADA business school today in Madrid. The job portal, Laboris.net, also collaborated on the report.

Women’s presence and training in managerial posts

The ICSA-EADA points out that women’s presence in managerial posts has scarcely varied over the last twelve months. According to the report, women have consolidated themselves in HR functions, where they account for 31.6% of all managers, clearly higher than other traditional management posts (general, finance, sales &marketing, production). This is followed by Financial Management with a little over 18%. In General Management the percentage is only 8.5%, practically the same as the previous year. As regards training, a key aspect of managerial competency, over 92% of women in management posts hold higher education qualifications whereas men are 5 percentage points behind. Having said this, it should be pointed out that in recent years male managers have made considerable headway in this respect, going from 73% of men with degrees in 2010 to 87.9% in 2012.