Spanish women must work 11 years more that men to win same money

USPA NEWS - The wage gap between men and women has widened in Spain up to 23.93% according to the union General Union of Workers (UGT its acronym in Spanish), the highest in the last five years. The union said that Spanish women must work eleven years longer than men to earn the same salary.

UGT has published a report on the occasion of the celebration on February 22, the Equal Pay Day. In that report, the union says a Spanish woman must work 79 days a year to get the same pay as men for work of equal value. In the whole working life of the Spaniards, a woman must work 46 years, compared to 35 that a man must work to earn the same money. This means that Spanish women are forgoing 27.783 million euros a year for his work. According to the union, the Spanish wage gap has also widened with Europe, reaching 2002 levels, and noted that this situation is a result of "decisions on economic policy and cuts in the welfare state".

Only five Spanish regions have a lower than average wage gap. Are the Balearic Islands, the Canaries, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura and Madrid, while larger wage gap between men and women are recorded in Galicia, in the northwest corner of Spain. By sector, the largest differences occur in health and social work activities (30.33%), professional, scientific and technical (31,69%) activities, administrative and support service activities (33.21%) and Other Services (36.10%). According UGT, the worst paid Hospitality sector, which employs 700,000 women in Spain, more than half of the workforce in the sector; while the Commerce employs 1,409,200 women, representing half of the workforce in the sector.

The report notes that 28.1% of the Spanish working women are at risk of poverty and social exclusion because of their low salaries. The union points out that women are responsible for much of the purchasing decisions in Spain, so it is urgent to trim the wage gap by gender. According to his data, almost two million Spanish women work part time, representing one in four employed. These are workers who have never received for his work over 11,000 gross per year.