Marie-Pierre Rixain, LREM deputy from Essonne and president of the Women’s Rights Delegation, advanced Wednesday on franceinfo several explanatory paths to understand pay inequalities while according to a collective women symbolically began to work for free at 9:22 a.m.
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According to calculations by the Les Glorieuses collective, women symbolically began to work for free on Wednesday, November 2 at 9:22 a.m. because the difference between the average annual salary of women and men is approximately 16.5%. Guest of franceinfo, Marie-Pierre Rixain, deputy La République en Marche (LREM) of Essonne and president of the Delegation for women’s rights and equal opportunities between women and men, provides explanations for the persistence of these wage inequalities.
“First of all, part-time work for women has probably grown, especially since the health crisis. Economic sectors in which women are most represented may also have been in difficulty.” Then, according to her, “On the other hand, the sectors which are the most promising from an economic point of view are sectors of activity in which women are the least represented”.
Marie-Pierre Rixain also mentions “strong stereotypes and cultural blockages”, and said he wanted to show “to young girls and to all women – not only the most highly educated – that very promising sectors on the economic level extend their arms to them”.
Marie-Pierre Rixain is also at the origin of a bill which “aims to reduce economic inequalities”. According to her, this text could “enable women who are the furthest from the labor market to be able to train throughout life and move towards sectors that are today buoyant in terms of the economy”. It would also facilitate “access to finance for women entrepreneurs”, while only 2% of them have access to financing from the Public Investment Bank (BPI).
“Companies have until next year to implement the catch-up measures, to address these wage inequalities”, affirms Marie-Pierre Rixain, whereas since 2018, a law makes it possible to measure the inequalities within the companies and to sanction them up to 1% of the turnover if they do not fight against. “We will therefore see next year if there are companies that will be fined, but I have no doubt that this will be the case because the law is very strict and precise on the subject”, she concludes.