In his speech at the award ceremony of the “Stars of Merit for Work” for 2024, which took place a few days ago, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella returned to talk about the issue of equal pay between men and women, underlining that it is the duty of institutions to work to make it effective everywhere and also recalling that art. 37 of the Constitution states that “Working women have the same rights and, for equal work, must have the same wages that their male colleagues are entitled to”.
And it was also discussed yesterday at the Retail Forum in Milan in the panel dedicated to salary equity, a central theme for inclusive corporate culture promoted within the Association of Women in Retail, during which Grazia De Gennaro of Maiora, Letizia Cantini of Svicom, Eleonora Graffione of Coralis and Francesca Lai of Carrefour shared values, projects and experiences that they carry forward within their (decidedly “enlightened”) realities.
Yet there is still a long way to go. The gender gap in salaries in our country is still too high, equal to about a third. According to the INPS Report, the average gross weekly wages of men in 2023 were on average 643 euros. A figure significantly higher than the average 501 euros earned by women. The gap is in fact 28,34%. The situation worsens even more if we analyze the difference between the average wages of EU workers, which stands at 582 euros, and that of non-EU workers, which stops at 385 euros a week. A gap equal to 51%. If we look at the gender imbalance among non-EU workers, women earn on average 309 euros a week, while men earn 432 euros.
Also notable is the difference between the private and public sectors. For women, the average daily wage is 77,6 euros, while for men it is 104,4 (+34,54%); the percentage jumps to +68,04% in the real estate sector where they have a daily average of 75,1 euros vs. 126,2 euros. There is only one sector where the wage for the fairer sex is (slightly) higher: quarrying and mining. In the manufacturing sector, wage discrimination persists with 91,9 euros per day versus 115,2. In the world of commerce the gap is between 73,1 euros and 95,7. In the domestic sector, women reach 52,5 euros gross per day compared to 64,7 for men.
It is clear that intervening on centuries of unequal practices, trying to change some aspects such as mothers' access to the labor market, the gender pay gap and the possibility for women to reach top positions, is not simple and requires intense and targeted efforts, but it is possible and many companies in Italy are already doing it. Progress is made of concrete steps forward and continuing on this path will only improve.
