Written for the March 10, 2023 issue of Penguin News. Printed under the headline “Gender pay gap in the Falklands”.

The 2021 Census data, released late in 2022, included figures on annual income by sex and location. The collected information shows a 22.2% difference in the median annual earnings of men and women, men earning £24,000 and women earning £19,200.

The 22.2% difference in the Falklands is significantly higher than in many other nations. Norway 4.6%; Italy 8.7% the UK 14.3% and the United States 16.9%. Comparable rates to the Falklands include Cyprus (21.1%) and Japan (22.1%), and the only measured higher rates globally are Latvia (24%), Israel (24.3%) and Korea (31.1%) [data OECD].

The imbalance in pay is highlighted by the fact that the only pay brackets which have a higher proportion of women than men are the below £5,000 range, with 74 men and 170 women; and the £10,001-£15,000 range, with 200 men and 273 women.

As the salary range increases the representation of women significantly decreases, the census data shows.

While there are 143 men who earn above £50k there are only 75 women. At the highest surveyed level of income - above £100,000 - there were almost twice as many men as women; 32 men, and 17 women.

The European Commission describes recognised reasons for the pay gap, including sectoral segregation, the over-representation of women in lower-paying sectors; an unequal share of paid and unpaid work, whereby women often work more hours per week than men, and women are more likely to work hours unpaid than men due to difference in employment terms.

Other causes can be the glass ceiling, less than 8% of top companies’ CEOs worldwide are women, and even when women reach managerial roles they are often underpaid. In the EU the profession with the largest differences in hourly earnings were managers: 23% lower earnings for women than for men. This also contributes to pay discrimination, women earning less than men for doing equal work or work of equal value.

An associated editorial from Nicholas Roberts in the same issue of Penguin News.

A belated Happy Women’s Day to our readers. My apologies for taking a slightly less, “all is well and nothing further to report” approach to the occasion.

Of course it’s important that we recognise the contributions of women to the Falklands, and celebrate that the Falklands are safer for women than many other places in terms of crime, punishment and general legal freedoms - even compared to some of the places with smaller pay gaps than the Falklands. Women in the Falklands can vote, drive, and walk freely around the city with less fear than in many other cities and countries. But this isn’t to say that the job is done, as the story on page 5 goes to show.

A 22% pay gap is far from insignificant, and I know from speaking to members of the public - I haven’t yet been able to report this officially, but perhaps take this as a note that it hasn’t gone unnoticed, employers - that there are some businesses here in the Falklands which make use of our woefully out-of-date employment laws to discourage women from taking maternity leave, and I have heard of women who are being paid less in the exact same job as men in the same role for the same length of time. I know also that some of these businesses even made posts celebrating their female employees on March 8.

If you find yourself in situations like this, by the way, do feel free to come to the paper.

There is work to be done. I’d never debate the value of Women’s Day, but let’s not reduce it to an occasion to post Facebook photos of inspirational women, have a reception at Government House, and consider the job done.

Less than a year ago I was writing about the hospital refusing to provide public information on abortion services, and today there is a significant pay gap. Progress was made on the hospital issue, and Penguin News highlighting the problem resulted in direct action. We are a small enough place that significant change can be made when people unite behind a common goal.

The day is more than just celebrating how far we’ve come, it’s also about acknowledging the work which remains to be done in the women’s rights movement here and abroad.

Nicholas Roberts