BETTER BUSINESS BETTER WORLD

can engage with communities as partners in protecting and sustaining their
livelihoods and in making sure women and girls can be free of sexual harassment
and discrimination.
Companies can have a particular influence on gender equality by prioritising
progress in their workforces. There is still a very long way to go to ensure a fair
deal for women – above all in developing countries, where structural gender
discrimination is a central issue in poverty and development. At current rates, it
will take 70 years to close the gender pay gap for those in direct employment and
throughout supply chains 227 , with women worldwide earning nearly 25 percent less
than men for doing the same work. 228 Across all major economies, women hold
fewer senior business leadership positions than men. 229 They are also far more
likely to work in informal, low-paid or undervalued sectors – 49 percent of working
women are in jobs classified as vulnerable. 230 And women take on a disproportionate
share of unpaid domestic care, with significant career consequences: 25 percent of
women in the European Union cite care and family responsibilities as the reason for
being out of the labour force, compared to just three percent of men. 231
"It will take 70 years to close the gender pay gap at this rate."
Governments will also need to do more during this time of pronounced uncertainty
and insecurity for many workers to help people retrain and cope with periods of
unemployment. Sustainable business leaders can support government spending
in this area and complement their efforts. One mechanism is support for active
labour market policies such as training schemes, employment subsidies and public
employment programmes. The amounts that governments spend on such schemes
vary wildly. Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden all spend one percent
of GDP or more. 232 For Denmark, the figure is as high as 2.3 percent. However, the
OECD average is 0.6 percent, and the US spends just 0.1 percent.
Another way companies can directly protect their workforces, especially workers
at risk of redundancy, is through their own training and skills programmes. While
the nature of skills needed in the economy of 2030 remains unsure, low skilled
workers are likely to be most at risk of long-term redundancy in an increasingly
automated economy.
5.3 Providing training and skills
Education and training helps individuals to enter and succeed in labour markets
everywhere. Moreover, the Commission’s research shows that progress on Global
Goal 4, Quality Education, is linked to improvement on more of the goals than
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