13th annual report ‘Female talent 2019 EADA - ICSA
Salary differences and quota of female presence’
The gender wage gap is closing but at a very slow rate according to EADA and ICSA Grupo
- Men earned an average of 16% more than women in managerial positions in Spain
- Female presence in management positions has grown slowly
- Experts call for urgent changes in education, values, better business management models and legislation
Barcelona, 3rd May 2019. According to the 13th annual report on ‘Female talent 2019. Salary differences and quota of female presence’ by EADA Business School and ICSA Grupo, last year men earned an average of 16.1% more than women in managerial positions in Spain. The percentage of female presence in management currently stands at 16.2%. Although these figures show that women are still underrepresented, a small improvement of 0.8% has been made in comparison with 2018 when it stood at 15.4%. Between 2008 and 2013, female presence dropped by 10 points and recovery has been a very slow process. ICSA Grupo partner Indry Canchila, who was in charge of the report, considers these figures alarming as “it will take 20 years to close the salary gap if we only improve 0.8% year-on-year”.
The study, which was carried out using the salary data of over 80,000 employees in Spain, confirms that economic growth in Spain over the last few years has had no direct or proportional bearing on closing the gender wage gap. According to Dr. Aline Masuda, professor at EADA Business School and report contributor, “the financial crisis returned the workplace to the model of classic management with more control, rigidity and full availability and it is here that women have lost out”
Pay inequality
The findings of the report, which have been published today, reveal that women still earn less than men in all professional categories. Senior male managers earn on average 16.1% more than their female counterparts. Salary differences are also reported in middle management roles where women earn 11.3% less than their male colleagues and for employees this figure stands at 12.4%.
In Spain, 83.8% of managers are men compared to 16.2% of women
Men also outnumber women in managerial positions. In Spain, 83.8% of managers are men compared to 16.2% of women. Despite this clear gender imbalance, 16.2% of female presence in management roles is a slight improvement on 2016 when it stood around 12%. Large companies have the lowest percentage of women in senior roles with 2.05% whereas SME´s have 10.05%. Indry Canchila, claims that “although the wage gap is closing and there has been an increase in female presence in managerial roles, it is not enough”. Female presence is higher in areas such as Human Resources (32.2%) and Administration and Financial management (19.5%) and it is lower in General Management (8.6%) where men occupy 91.4% of these positions. According to Canchila:
“Managerial roles are not designed with women in mind. However, we have noted that digitalisation and telecommuting can be beneficial for a work-life balance as long as the sector, product or service allows it”
The study also indicates very small differences between the level of education of men and women in senior management. 43.3% of female managers have a master’s or postgraduate degree versus 42.2% of their male counterparts. When it comes to university degrees, women outnumber men by an average of 2.3%. This data shows that wage inequality and the quota of female presence is not due to a lack of training. For Masuda, “society has normalised the fact that only men can be managers because we only see men taking on these roles. We need to promote a change of perspective from an early age using measures which encourage gender equality as has been done in other countries such as Sweden”.
The need for action
Faced with this chronic problem of gender imbalance in the Spanish workplace, experts point towards three main areas in need of improvement: “personal” through education and values, “business” through better models of management and “political” through legislation which supports gender equality. On this last point, Dr. Aline Masuda considers that gender equality policies “respond to social pressure but they must be specific and applicable. The recent extension in paternity leave is a clear example of this”. However, she also warns that “the appearance of groups which openly debate these issues is worrying”. For Canchila we need to “become actively involved because urgent change is needed”.
