Women “could stop working on November 6 at 11:25 a.m. if they were paid an average hourly rate similar to men while earning what they earn today, still on average, throughout the year,” estimates the newsletter “Les Glorieuses”.
A powerful calculation to denounce salary inequalities. Due to this gap, in France, women are starting to “work for free” from 11:25 a.m., Monday November 6, until the end of the year, estimates the feminist newsletter Les Glorieuses. Concretely, they “could stop working on November 6 at 11:25 a.m. if they were paid an average hourly rate similar to men while earning what they earn today, still on average, per year”, notes the online media.
This symbolic date was calculated from European statistics. This year, in France, women earn on average 15.4% less than men. Last year, this salary gap reached 15.8%, which led Les Glorieuses to set the symbolic date at November 3, at 9:10 a.m.
“There is real stagnation”
“We have been doing this calculation for eight years, it varies very little, there is real stagnation,” observed from AFP Rebecca Amsellem, founder of the newsletter, who is at the origin of a petition to demand the implementation of three public policies aimed at promoting equal pay.
“L“France is quite late”, has reported Cynthia Illouz, founder of the information site The Women’s Voices, guest of Franceinfo on Sunday. “We are 2-3% below the European average. (…) We see that there is an awareness, but unfortunately, it is progressing slowly”she lamented.
To remedy this gap, Les Glorieuses calls in particular for an increase in salaries in professions where women are the most numerous, and calls for equivalent post-birth leave for both parents.
“A lot of things remain to be done”
They also want access to public markets and obtaining subsidies and loans guaranteed by the State to be conditional “respect for equal pay”in order to “ensure that the budget allocated by public funds does not accentuate inequalities”.
If “many things still remain to be done”, “two notable advances” were obtained this year on the issue of transparency in terms of salaries, notes Rebecca Amsellem. According to a ruling from the Court of Cassation dated March 8, a female employee can legitimately request the communication of pay slips of male employees occupying positions of a comparable level to hers.
A European directive, intended to force employers in the EU to be transparent to guarantee equal pay between women and men, has also been adopted, and will have to be transposed by member states into their national law by June 2026.