Women’s salaries across the country have fallen drastically in the last decade, according to data published by the national statistics institute, Inegi.
The data reveal that the number of women earning five times the daily minimum wage fell 55% in the last 10 years, from 1.255 million workers to just 555,000 in the last trimester of 2019.
With the minimum wage set at 123.22 pesos (US $6.33) per day, the benchmark used for the study, five times that amount, works out to a daily salary of 616 pesos. The number of women earning that much fell to its lowest level since Inegi began collecting this data in 2005.
The study found, however, that the number of women earning twice the daily minimum wage rose 64.2%.
On the state level, those women earning a higher salary in Morelos, Baja California, Guerrero and Tamaulipas fell over 75% in the last decade. In Morelos, that decline was as high as 90.4%.
There are only 1,173 women in the state that earn more than the 616-peso benchmark, much lower than the 12,243 women in this earning category in the state in 2009.
Baja California saw a similar drop in the 2010s, with an 89% reduction in women earning such a salary. Their numbers fell from 49,195 in 2009 to just 5,576 at the end of 2019.
Baja California Sur, on the other hand, saw these numbers change very little, with only 89 fewer women earning 616 pesos per day at the end of the 10-year period.
The 555,000 women earning higher salaries represent only 2.5% of the total number of women in the workforce, who numbered 22,032,000 at the end of last year. Among men, that sector is higher, as 4.3% of men in the workforce earn five times the daily minimum wage, which equals 18,483 pesos per month.
The Senate is currently discussing an initiative proposed by the Chamber of Deputies that would aim to bring equity to this disparity in earnings. The initiative cites information from the International Labor Organization revealing that women earn on average 23% less than men.
The project would oblige government institutions and public and private companies to offer equal pay for the same job regardless of the worker’s sex.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare reports that the national average of monthly earnings for men is 7,206, while for women it is 5,536. In some states the difference is much higher, such as in Nuevo León, where men on average earn 3,000 more pesos per month than women.
The only state in the country without such a disparity in wages is Chiapas, where both genders earn the same average salary. However, that average salary is the lowest in the country at 4,250 pesos.
The state with the lowest wages for women in the country is Oaxaca, where females earn an average of only 3,600 pesos per month.
The Ministry of Public Administration announced that it would launch an open call for applications to federal public administrative offices on Thursday in honor of International Women’s Day, which will be celebrated on Sunday, March 8.
The ministry has allocated 300 positions to be occupied exclusively by women.
“This is another example of the perspective of gender and human rights of the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador,” said Public Administration Minister Irma Eréndira Sandoval.
Source: Milenio (sp)
