As we were finishing this article, positive news arrived on 26 October: a first step was taken towards achieving true inclusion within our system.
A bill on equal pay passed into law, aiming to overcome the discrimination and penalties that many women face in our country.
It remains a first step that must now be put into practice to become reality.
We hope this happens as soon as possible.
The purpose of this article remains the same.
We want to share some contextual insights regarding the Gender Pay Gap, which is part of the broader issue of the inclusion divide in the workplace.
Labour market participation
Since the post-war period, there has been a steady increase in women’s participation in the labour market. Over time (as all research confirms), women have consistently delivered outstanding educational performance (often outperforming their male peers both in completion times and academic results).
Yet the higher one climbs the hierarchy in private enterprise, public administration, or politics, the lower the proportion of women in top-level roles.
Beyond the gender pay gap itself, significant investments are made to develop a vital portion of the country’s talent, only to underutilise it—to the detriment of everyone.
In 2018, when United Nations Development Programme adviser Anuradha Seth called income inequality between men and women “the biggest robbery in history”, her statement caused a stir: “There is not a single country, nor a single sector, where women earn the same salaries as men for equal skills and education.”
The situation in Italy
According to the 28th Salary Report by ODM Consulting, an HR consultancy belonging to Gi Group, for the same level of work experience, the gender pay gap stands at 5.5% among graduates and 8% among non-graduates.
Unsurprisingly, this works to the disadvantage of women, who are systematically paid less than their male colleagues.
The ODM Consulting report suggests that in our country, the recession triggered by Covid has cemented the gender pay gap.
Furthermore, the crisis caused by the pandemic has hit the labour market asymmetrically, eliminating far more jobs held by women than by men.
Thus, long-standing systemic issues combined with new challenges have led to yet another worsening of conditions for women in Italy.
Gender pay gap: salary disparities between men and women
An analysis of salary trends in Italy throughout 2019 and the first half of 2020 highlights a clear fact: gender plays a decisive role in determining pay.
In Italy, according to the 28th Salary Report, men’s salaries are, on average, higher than women’s.
This holds true across all professional categories examined in the survey (executives, middle managers, white-collar employees, manual workers) and at all levels.
Men are paid more right from the start of their careers.
Estimates by ODM Consulting indicate that a professional under 30 with one to two years of work experience earns an average of €25,216 per year without a degree, and €29,780 with a degree.
A female peer with the same qualifications and experience earns, on average, €23,210 or €28,051 respectively.
The pay gap—calculated on an annual basis—varies depending on the profession and job grade.
Beyond the numbers
While these studies provide crucial evidence of the gender pay gap, numbers alone do not fully capture the complexity of the issue.
Inequality is also tied to opportunities:
- the prevalence of women in part-time roles (according to 2019 Istat data, 73.4% of part-time workers are women);
- the so-called “glass ceiling”, which hinders women’s career progression and excludes them from the highest-paying positions. In Italy, only 32% of executives are women. Looking at executive leadership positions, female CEOs account for only 6.3% of the total (Source: Cerved–Marisa Bellisario Foundation Report, 2020).
The national equal pay legislation is an important first step. Many more must be taken to create a genuinely inclusive society:
- we must also work to resolve the work-life balance dilemma. Even today, this remains a disadvantage for women, who opt for flexible arrangements far more often than men.
- We must continue to apply pressure and take action to shatter the glass ceiling. We need to turn gender quotas into a meaningful commitment to an open corporate culture—one capable of generating ever greater value by integrating and celebrating diversity.
