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Working women in large parts of the world are better educated, more experienced and more productive than their male counterparts on average, but are still paid less, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Friday.
In its latest Global Wage Report, the ILO found men were paid more than women in all of the 38 countries examined, showing the 'gender pay gap' remains firmly entrenched around the world.
The biggest pay gap was in the United States, where women earn $64.20 on average for every $100 earned by a man. That discrepancy could largely be explained, however, by factors such as the men's greater productivity, education or experience, the ILO said.
However, in Europe, Russia and Brazil, women scored higher than men on such attributes, but the pay gap still existed.
"One of the factors that will account for that is discrimination," ILO Deputy Director-General Sandra Polaski said. "It may reflect different factors in different countries, but certainly discrimination is part of it."
On average, in the 26 European countries in the survey, women should expect to get paid 0.9% more than men, based on those factors, but they actually earn 18.9% less.
In Brazil, Russia, Denmark, Sweden and Lithuania the pay premium for women would amount to more than 10%. In Slovenia the figure was 18.5%.
In China, women and men's pay should be virtually the same based on those factors, with women due a 0.2% premium. But Chinese women are actually paid 22.9% less than men.
Russia and Brazil were the countries where women's pay differed most from what would be expected. In Russia, women earn 32.8% less than men, but the 'observable factors' measured by the ILO, which also include the sector and job role in which they work, should entitle them to 11.1% more.
