Pandemic freezes gains for women in management positions

14.3% of leadership roles are held by females with 17.7% gender pay gap

Two Fundació Tutelar female workers speaking in Figueres on June 9, 2021 (by Gemma Tubert)
Two Fundació Tutelar female workers speaking in Figueres on June 9, 2021 (by Gemma Tubert) / ACN

ACN | Barcelona

May 18, 2022 04:54 PM

Women make up 14.3% of all management positions in Catalonia, according to a study released on Wednesday by ICSA and EADA Business School group. Women in these roles also earn 17.7% less than their male coworkers. The Covid-19 pandemic has frozen gains towards equality as the report states.

As for non-management position figures, women hold up to 39.9% of intermediate roles and represent 47% of all employees.

In both cases, intermediate roles have a 9.7% gender pay gap difference, while for workers as a whole this is 15%. 

The report points out that only 16.8% of women are in management positions across Spain, two percentage points less than in 2021. However, 0.4 percentage points more than in 2020, when 16.4% did. 

"Covid has shown that we could have evolved thanks to different available tools. However, we are stepping back to pre-pandemic models," Indry Canchila, consultant at ICSA, said during a press conference on Wednesday. "The women quota is drastically affected," she added.

In Spain, female CEOs are at the helm of 8.8% of companies, meaning that under 1 in 10 women are in management positions. "The number has not changed for years," the report points out.  

Salary-wise, in Spain, males in leadership positions earn an average of €88,129 annually, while women only receive €77,928 for the same position, €11,000 less

For the report, ICSA and EADA Business School checked the salaries of 80,000 people.