The World Economic Forum has released a report that reveals the results of a study into the gender gap, revealing that Luxembourg sits in 32nd place with a score of 0.738, and top regarding equivalence of pay.
The Global Gender Gap Index 2015 ranks 145 economies according to how well they are leveraging their female talent pool, based on economic, educational, health-based and political indicators. The results of the research show Iceland on top, followed by Norway, Finland, Sweden and Ireland.
Globally, women’s pay still ranks behind that of men, with women now being paid what men were paid in 2006 when the Global Gender Gap Report was first published. Extrapolating this trajectory suggests that it would take the world another 118 years – or until 2133 – to close the economic gap entirely.
Britain ranked 18 out of 145 in terms of the provision of equal pay to women, with Germany at 11, France at 15 and the United States at 28.
Luxembourg scored top in Educational Attainment, but scored poorly in Health and survival (71), Political empowerment (53) and Economic participation & opportunity (31)- the latter despite being ranked #1 in estimated earned income, at USD 40k, the same as men; where it really fell down was its ranking of 94 for "legislators, senior officials and managers".
Overall, the research found that the average full-time salary for working women is USD 11,102 a year - approximately half the male average of USD 20,554.
“More women than men are enrolled in universities in nearly 100 countries but women hold the majority of senior roles in only a handful of countries,” said the World Economic Forum’s Saadia Zahidi. “Companies and governments need to implement new policies to prevent this continued loss of talent and instead leverage it for boosting growth and competitiveness.”
