Although it seems like a recent concept, the International Labor Organization recognized in 1919 the right to equal pay based on work of equal value. It says so by incorporating a substantive principle that has since vindicated female work, which throughout the 20th century slowly but significantly incorporated women into all areas of production.
In 2021, the Senate of the Republic approved this principle, 102 years later, by reforming and making changes to 13 laws. Approval described as historic by taking a substantive step towards equality between men and women. But it has been “frozen” for three years in the Chamber of Deputies, with a pro-government majority.
This reform opens the necessary regulatory conditions so that, when work of equal value is recognized, women stop earning less than men; It is not about the simplism of equal work, equal pay, but rather it is about work of equal value.
Isn’t human life worth it? An example: a technician who climbs a light pole is paid more than a woman who cares for 50 children in the nursery. It is not an equal task but it has the same value.
The job categories agreed upon by employers and union leaders undervalue women in countless positions and activities. In this way, male supremacy and the economic system that benefits it are maintained. The reform affects that.
The approval of the changes was described as the most important step to promote equality, non-discrimination, disparity in remuneration and considering work and value in everything that is produced for people to live and enjoy.
I am afraid that not approving it has unmentionable reasons. I suspect that the official party protects bosses and bureaucrats, it does not want to touch the public administration where this disparity is phenomenal. How and why? Legislators seem not to understand the word equality. After discussing the changes since 2018, eleven initiatives were analyzed and a long discussion was generated.
In Mexico the wage gap ranges from 18 to 35 percent, higher than what happens in many poor countries. It is unknown that salary leveling could trigger greater national development.
Recognizing the comparable value of work was discussed by European feminists at least 70 years ago and periodically adopted and ratified by the ILO, disseminated and sustained by Italian feminists.
The principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value touches upon the criteria that determine salaries, the organization of companies and workplaces. It would allow each position to be valued and resolve situations of inequality, privileges and discrimination.
There is the specific ILO Convention, 1951 or 100, and the topic in recent decades has generated interest and analysis in civil society, institutions and governments concerned with resolving gender gaps as one of the most pressing challenges for both labor organizations and for feminist struggles.
Resisting is not an ideological issue, it is economic, since today Mexican women carry out all the activities. The gender pay disparity is based on the oppression of women; it does not recognize their work based on skills, qualifications, efforts, responsibilities and conditions.
The gaps are much more pronounced in certain economic sectors, where women’s work is segregated by confining them to tasks considered minor due to discrimination and exclusion. How will the State party explain this omission? We will see.
Journalist. Director of the information portal http://www//semmexico.mx