The Ministries of Women and Labor and Employment (MTE), released on Monday (25), a report with information from companies with more than 100 employees, which shows that women earn on average 18.3% less than men in Acre.
The information is from the 1st Salary Transparency Report with a gender breakdown. In total, 104 Acre companies responded to the questionnaire. Together, they have 33,500 employees. The requirement to send data complies with Law No. 14,611, which provides for Equal Pay and Remuneration Criteria between Women and Men, sanctioned by President Lula in July 2023.
Female professionals continue to face lower salaries compared to their male counterparts in many professional fields. This wage gap not only harms women economically, but also intensifies social and opportunity inequalities. Walking the streets of Rio Branco, it is not difficult to find women who in their professional field have received lower salaries than men, simply because they are women.
The pay gap between men and women varies depending on the major occupational group. In Acre, in positions of directors and managers, for example, it reaches 35.6%.
The report also recorded that 43.8% of companies have job and salary plans; 31.3% adopt policies to promote women to management positions; 10.4% have policies to support the hiring of women; and 14.6% adopt incentives for hiring black women.
Sales consultant Sandra de Jesus says that she has already experienced this distinction in values, even though she works more than her co-workers. “Yes, I have had this experience. I’ve worked in places where men earned more than me. I did more work in the company and the man did less, so I received less than him”, says Sandra.
Clícia Félix is self-employed and has also had to experience this difference in salary payments compared to men. The freelancer says the situation is revolting. “Unfortunately, this really happens, I’ve been through this situation of receiving less. I thought it was the worst, because we work much more often than men, and because we are women we don’t have equal rights, but unfortunately we don’t in our country”, criticizes Clícia.
The Salary Transparency report also points out that black women, in addition to being fewer in the job market, also receive less than white women. Lawyer Tatiana Martins, a specialist in labor law, says that this means an existing salary inequality, which despite already existing in the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT), the requirement for equal functions, salaries must be equal, for those who have the same period of time, it is observed that there is still gender inequality in relation to these values.
“Women end up being underemployed, they end up not having a formal contract or they often end up having a lower commission. In typically male roles, the salary for men ends up being higher than for women due to their own machismo. Although women have higher qualifications, they have a lower salary percentage. Women have a higher average level of education than men and yet we see the persistence of a lower salary,” says the lawyer.
Tatiana also reinforces that continuous actions are necessary to promote pay equity and create a fair and inclusive work environment for everyone. “Companies need to start taking a better look at this, so that this inequality ends, to bring policies into companies, policies to avoid this type of salary inequality, and be sensitive to this treatment. The public authorities themselves, the whole of society, need to come together to end this wage gap.”, declares the lawyer.
By G1
