Closing the gender pay gap is decades away — at least 20 decades to be exact, according to a new report from the World Economic Forum.
The annual Global Gender Gap report found that at its current pace, it will take 202 years for the disparity between men and women’s earnings to disappear.
While this figure is a slight improvement on last year’s estimate of 217 years, the report found that the path to equality has nevertheless stalled, with the total number of working women dropping. Saadia Zahidi, the WEF’s head of social and economic agendas told The Guardian that “the future of our labor market may not be as equal as the trajectory we thought we were on.”
Presently, women earn on average just 63% that of what men earn. Of the 149 countries included in the report, not one saw equal or superior pay for women.
The report considered gender parity in four areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. The areas of political and economic leadership are where the divides remain starkest.
Despite persistent inequality particularly found in countries in the Middle East, the most gender-equal country overall is Iceland, followed by Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The U.S., meanwhile, ranked 51st.
