In particular, women registered an average monetary income of 19,081 pesos per quarter while that of men amounted to 29,285 pesos during the same period. These incomes concentrate those that come from paid employment added to those from other sources such as pensions, transfers from social programs, remittances or property rentals, to name a few.
The income gap shown by the ENIGH (35%) is less than the 13% that can be calculated with data from the third quarter of 2022 from the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE). Because? The difference lies in the definition of income for each survey. The ENOE measures labor income, while the ENIGH captures other sources that seem to reinforce economic inequality between the sexes. That is to say, it is known that men tend to accumulate more income because they work more hours or because they have access to better paid jobs, but also the average figure increases with what they get from renting a house or office or receiving higher contributory pensions, to mention Some examples.
The good news comes when this data is analyzed over time and a drop in the indicator is observed. In 2016 the gender income gap was 42%, in 2018 it dropped to 38%, in 2020 to 34% and in 2022 it rose marginally to 35%. Although the indicator has practically remained the same in the last two years, it must be remembered that 2020 was an atypical year due to the pandemic, in which the gap narrowed due to a deterioration in the working conditions of men combined with an increase in the average income of women as the majority of female workers who dropped out of the labor force earned low wages.
In this story, there were women who had greater conquests than others. First, the gender earnings gap for those with master’s degrees fell 13 percentage points, from 44% in 2018 to 31% in 2022. They were the group with the largest drop, and I hypothesize that this could be a product of that in Mexico the labor demand is progressing and the most prepared women have a better position to take advantage of these changes. Second, the gap for people aged 60 and over also narrowed by six percentage points, from 47% in 2018 to 41% in 2022. In part, this change could be driven by the Older Adults Program that makes up for the lack of contributory pensions that affect women to a greater extent.