Name: What does equal pay mean for the economy? | CNBC Explains
Uploaded: 2018-12-16T06:14:10.000Z
Duration: 4 min 1 s
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Did you know that for every one dollar earned by a man,

Adverbs of degree

The MeToo movement  has put gender inequality

in the spotlight from London  all the way to Hollywood,

and a lot of that inequality comes in the form of cold hard cash.

The gender pay gap is the  difference in median earnings

It's expressed as a percentage  of men's earnings.

So if the gender pay gap  is 20%, that means

a woman earns 80 cents for every one dollar earned by a man.

OK, so how big of a gap are we talking about?

Korea, Estonia and Japan have  some of the biggest gender pay gaps,

while Costa Rica, Luxembourg and Greece have the smallest gaps.

There are a lot of  pieces to this puzzle.

Let's use some fictional characters here in the U.K.

Sally is likely to work  in the caring, leisure

or in an administrative  or secretarial job.

James, meanwhile, is more likely  to work in skilled trades

or as a process, plant  or machine operator.

But there's another  important factor, too.

Even though Sally and James  start out making about the

really starts to widen in their mid-30s and 40s.

Sally might stop working  or start working part-time

and when she comes back to work full-time,

she earns a lot less than  her male counterparts.

Not to mention, it's estimated  women like Sally

account for 75% of the world's total unpaid work,

including crucial tasks to  keep households running.

One thing to note is that even after looking at

differences in occupations and work hours,

the U.K. government found  that 64% of the gender pay gap

couldn't be explained, and some see this as

evidence of discrimination  in the workplace.

gender pay gap, most experts agree leveling it out

One study found that  equal pay would cut

the poverty rate of working women in half,

and produce an additional  income of around $512 billion

Another report found that  if women in developing countries

Plus there are economic  bonuses just from

In 2017, just under half  of working-age women

If as many women worked as men, the IMF estimates

The IMF also found  that bringing more women

Some countries haven't been able to ignore these numbers.

As of 2017, the U.K.  mandated that companies

This year, Iceland enacted  a first-of-its-kind law

that forces companies  to eliminate pay gaps.

Some companies are creating  more flexible policies

for women who want to work full-time and have children,

Agencies like the U.N. promote higher education

and skills training to bring more women into the workforce.

These efforts look like  steps in the right direction.

But research shows  it will still take 100 years

And for many people here,  closing the gap isn't

isn't just a women's issue, it's an economic issue, too.

Be sure to check out more  of our videos over here.

for CNBC Explains in the comments section.

And be sure to  subscribe to our channel.

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What does equal pay mean for the economy? | CNBC Explains

crucial

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