From this Wednesday 4:16 pm, women "work for free"

A woman in a factory (illustrative image).

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From 4:16 pm this Wednesday, women work for free, denounces the feminist newsletter Les Glorieuses, which notes a "stagnation" in wage inequalities.

The collective proposes a "feminist recovery plan".

⏰Hello, today from 4:16 p.m., women work for free because of pay inequalities!

👏Good news, there is a consensus to condemn these inequalities, and ask the Government to act.

Sign the petition # 4Novembre16h16 here https://t.co/nRGQb2WfWx

- Les Glorieuses Newsletter (@Les_Glorieuses) November 4, 2020

This symbolic date and time were calculated from European statistics on the pay gap between women and men in France.

This year, this difference is 15.5%, against 15.4% last year, with a date then determined on November 5 at 4:47 p.m.

"It is not improving, it is rather a stagnation", regretted to AFP economist Rebecca Amsellem, founder of "Glorieuses".

Solutions to restore a balance

This year, the activists who relay the # 4Novembre16h16 movement launched a petition to demand a “feminist economic recovery plan”.

According to them, this should in particular make access to public contracts, public subsidies and loans guaranteed by the State conditional on better respect for equal pay by companies.

It would also be necessary "to support a paternity leave equivalent to maternity leave", and "to enhance the salaries of the trades where women are the most numerous, such as care professions", insists the text of the petition.

Since March 2019, each company with at least 250 employees must calculate and publish its gender equality index every year on the Internet.

This has also been the case since March 2020 for companies with 50 to 250 employees.

This index "is a good idea, but it does not go far enough", commented Rebecca Amsellem.

“As it is the companies themselves who rate themselves, they can cheat,” she accused, also believing that companies can “quite easily play with the criteria” of the index to avoid a bad rating.

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• Wage inequalities

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• Feminism

• gender equality