The bill that never arrives
Coparmex’s numbers are clear, but they tell only half of the story. A woman in the formal sector earns 12,971 pesos per month. In the informal sector, that figure plummets to 6,331. The difference is 48%. Seems like an obvious choice, right?
But here’s the trick: even within the formality, they receive 10% less than a man for the same work. The wage gap is the silent tax they pay for being women.
The invisible work that nobody pays
The real bomb is in what does not appear on any payroll. Coparmex points it out bluntly:
“The gap worsens when considering unpaid work (such as household and care work), whose value is equivalent to 23.9% of GDP. Of that total, women contribute 72.6%, a contribution 2.7 times greater than that of men.”
Translation: women support a quarter of the national economy with free labor. It is the hidden foundation on which everything else is built.
The conclusion of the employer’s body is forceful: “Without redistribution of responsibilities and without the necessary care infrastructure, it will not be possible to unleash the productive potential of women”. Employers say this, not an activist.
Smaller credits and more obstacles
Inequality is reproduced in the financial system. For every 100 pesos a man earns, a woman receives 86 for identical work. This translates into less access to credit and banking products.
Although seven out of ten women already have some formal financial product in 2024, Coparmex warns that this does not solve the underlying problem. Quoting the ILO:
“women receive smaller loans and have greater difficulties accessing financing for their own businesses compared to men.”
Another lock for female entrepreneurship.
The final diagnosis is discouraging. Full labor inclusion continues to be a historical debt. And according to these projections, closing the global economic gap would take us… between 123 and 134 years.
More than a century waiting for equality. At that rate, not even our granddaughters will see it.
