One in four men does not dedicate any time to housework during the week

BarcelonaThe gender pay gap is one of the clearest examples of inequality between men and women in the labor market. In Catalonia, this disparity resulted in women earning 16.75% less than men in 2023: the average annual earnings for men were €32,721.58, while for women it was €27,240.93. With these figures, the monthly difference amounts to €456.72 less for women. These are the latest available data explaining this structural phenomenon, presented in a report this Friday by the UGT (General Union of Workers) of Catalonia. The wage gap between men and women is greater in Catalonia than in Spain as a whole, where the gap stood at 15.74%.

Even so, 2023 marked the second consecutive year of a narrowing gap, and it decreased significantly, by 2.76 percentage points compared to the previous year, following a slight increase in 2021 during the recovery from the pandemic crisis. The peak of the gender pay gap was reached in 2017, at 26%, and since then this percentage has been decreasing, at varying rates from year to year. "We can observe that the gender pay gap has been decreasing over the years, but gradually and very slowly, except when the largest increases in the minimum wage come into effect," notes the UGT report from Catalonia. In 2025, the pay gap meant that women effectively worked 34 days a year for free, from November 28th to December 31st.

The union's analysis focuses on the evolution of the gender pay gap, but also highlights the impact of reduced working hours and leaves of absence, which are mostly requested by women, as well as the distribution of household responsibilities. According to the report Women in Catalonia 2024According to a study by the Gender Equality Observatory, women dedicate an average of 1.9 hours a day to housework and caregiving on weekdays, while men dedicate 1.1 hours. In fact, one in four men does not dedicate any time to housework during the week. This difference is repeated on weekends, when women dedicate an average of three hours a day and men two. "This difference demonstrates a lack of shared responsibility in the domestic sphere" and also limits women's career advancement opportunities, the UGT report emphasizes.

The impact of motherhood

Thus, the union points out that the gender pay gap widens significantly after age 35, and that the onset of reproductive age and the need to balance work and family life—associated with women due to socially imposed gender roles—lead many of them to take part-time jobs when they become mothers. In fact, UGT criticizes the fact that having children penalizes women in the labor market and benefits men. A clear example is that the employment rates for women and men without children are 79.8% for men and 78.1% for women. However, when they have children, the rate increases to 88.2% for men and decreases to 71.5% for women. Furthermore, regarding parental leave for childcare, in Catalonia in 2023, 85.9% of such leave was requested by women, and only 14.1% by fathers or other parents besides the biological mother.

For UGT of Catalonia, the approval of the reduction of working hours –which was passed in Congress last September because of the No from TogetherThis would be a good measure to help improve these figures and achieve a truly equitable distribution of care work. Furthermore, the union emphasizes the importance of raising the national minimum wage, as it is the most common wage in highly feminized sectors with persistent gender pay gaps, such as hospitality and domestic work.