The initiative analyzed different areas of commerce, consigning the gaps by income and by working hours that still exist between women and men.
According to the SumUp Index, developed by the MIPP Millennium Institute and the Center for Retail Studies (CERET) in collaboration with the payment method fintech, the female presence in small businesses in Chile leads with 61%. The items with the greatest presence correspond to Clothing with 78.6%, then Professional Services with 76.8%, and Retail with 61.3%.
“This study confirms that women are fundamental pillars in the value chain of small and medium enterprises that operate in our country. However, we can observe that there is a gap both in income and in working hours that is detrimental to women, for this reason, both private and public entities must make efforts to gradually deliver new tools that allow us to equalize the balance,” he said. in a statement Carlos Schaaf, Country Manager of SumUp for Chile.
By working hour, the income received by women is 11.5% less than that of men, while the average weekly income is 10.4% less. Likewise, it was recorded that the hourly income gap increased 92% between 2019 and 2022, while the weekly income gap grew 277%.
The report pointed out that women have lower income in all regions, with large differences regarding the items of business. Thus, the hourly income gap varies between 3.6% in Professional Services, and 25.4% in Art and Design. The size of the business also influences the gap: in the largest businesses, women earn 11% less than men per hour of operation, while in the smallest businesses, women earn 1.24% more per hour. of activity.
“This report shows that several of the income gaps that are manifested in other sectors of the economy are also reproduced in small businesses. In our analysis, we found that an important part of the income gaps are explained by the hours of operation, which could be due to the fact that women face restrictions to operate during some productive hours”, explains Sofía Correa, a researcher at the MIPP Millennium Institute and co-author of the report together with Marcel Goic, a researcher at CERET and the MIPP Millennium Institute.
Regarding dedication of hours to activities in small businesses, women invest 12.5 hours daily, while men 13 hours. The document showed that women operate fewer hours in almost all regions of our country, except Tarapacá and Magallanes, with Antofagasta being the region with the most average hours of operation (3.1).
The category also influences the dedication of hours. The document indicated that Food and Groceries are presented as the activity with the highest average hours of operation for women, with 3.4 hours a day. In second place are Organizations with Entertainment and Recreation, both with 2.9 hours a day. And the item that records the least daily hours is Trades and other services, with 2.1.
MIPP Chile 2024