WHITE PAPER ABSTRACT: The Gender Wage Gap

In this white paper, Soroptimist International of the Americas, working to improve the lives of women and girls in local communities and throughout the world, examines the issue of the gender pay gap. Despite decades of anti-discrimination laws and changes in the policies of companies and businesses worldwide, women are still not earning as much as men do in the workplace. As such, a gender pay gap exists across the globe. The size of that gap varies from country to country and is dependent on many variables. The sobering reality remains, however, that on average, women continue to work for lower earnings than men. While the gender pay gap is a complex and multi-layered problem, it nonetheless requires the political and collective will from governments, employers, employees and their representatives in order to improve the situation. Soroptimist’s exploration of the gender wage gap worldwide is a starting point for dialogue and education, given the reality that most of the world’s women are poor. Pay equity addresses that poverty, which ripples out to impact women as well as their families, communities, and the economies of their nations.

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