How Much Less Are Women Paid Than Men?

The idea is simple: To narrow the stubbornly wide gap between the pay of women and men, lay out the data. That notion has driven a push toward pay transparency around the world, engineered through a rush of legislation and directives over the past few years. It’s shining a light on the progress — or the lack thereof — in pay practices and which measures are actually effective.

Yes and no. Among the 38 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 27 now have some form of pay transparency in place. The data that’s emerged shows the gender pay gap across the OECD narrowed from 19% in 1996 to 12% in 2021, based on median earnings for women and men. Still, some countries have seen their pay gaps shrink, while others have not. One reason is that some laws apply to large companies only, leaving behind smaller firms. And advocates say transparency needs to be paired with enforcement. In the UK, for example, the gap hasn’t budged since reporting was implemented in 2017. That’s due to a lack of fines, experts say. In Denmark, on the other hand, the differential narrowed 7% after a transparency law was passed in 2006.