The gender pay gap remains a significant challenge in Colombia. Women earn an average of 6.3% less than men for the same work. Furthermore, this gap is exacerbated in the case of women with children under 18 years of age, who can receive 11% less income.
In the Andean country, the female unemployment rate is 17.5%, 6.2 percentage points higher than that of men, according to the most recent figures from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE).
On the other hand, according to the report “A Look at Education 2024” by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), women between 25 and 34 years old in Colombia have less chances of finding work compared to men.
An example of this reality is Carolina Cifuentes, who during her pregnancy faced difficulties in getting hired due to the barriers imposed by employers in the selection processes.
“I applied for several interviews during my pregnancy. At one of them, they told me that there would be no problem hiring me while I was pregnant, but the day of the training coincided with a prenatal check-up and the company did not agree to change the schedule,” Carolina told the Voice of America.
Despite the progress made and the fact that Colombian laws require equal opportunities in the workplace, entering the workforce remains a challenge for women like Carolina.
“You don’t know whether to lie or keep quiet about these things because either they don’t accept you, or if they do select you, they impose a lot of restrictions on you. Sometimes, they simply prefer someone without children, because they know you’ll have to be away at any moment,” she explained.
In this regard, María del Mar Jaramillo, director of the Soy Oportunidad Foundation, an NGO that helps women enter the labor market, points out that one of the “historical barriers” that limit women’s participation in the labor market is due, in large part, to the stereotype that at a certain age women will decide to have children.
“Just because you are a potential mother, it is assumed that you will ask for permission or leave in the future. It is unfair, and only recently has this wage inequality begun to be discussed,” Jaramillo said in an interview with the VOA.
“Since the foundation, we have worked intensively with companies to make them understand the benefits of hiring women. This helps to build trust and move projects forward, but it is still viewed from the perspective of leave, disability and maternity leave,” she said.
Angela Fonseca Galvis, professor in the Department of Economics and co-director of the gender and economics line at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, said that “employers in countries like Colombia see women with a double burden: working and being caregivers.
“This heavy burden of care makes employers perceive them as less productive, so they often offer them lower salaries to cover the risk of pregnancy.”
Fonseca also mentioned that, if we compare men and women with the same academic training, the same occupation and similar ages, women earn, on average, between 15% and 20% less than men, especially in the private sector.
In this context, both Jaramillo and Fonseca agree that motherhood is one of the factors that influence wage inequality. They point to the need to implement more public policies that give women better opportunities in the labor market.
Finally, Jaramillo said that they are collaborating with companies to understand the gaps when hiring women and teach them how to balance family responsibilities with the work environment.
“There is still a lot of work to be done in terms of public policy, and it is a very strong effort,” he concluded.
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