The crisis is “likely to inflict massive downward pressure on wages in the near future”, the U.N. agency said in a report.
While wages fell or grew more slowly in two-thirds of countries for which data was available, in the remaining third, a rise in wages was largely due to many lower-paid workers losing their jobs, skewing the average higher.
Without subsidies such as coronavirus furlough schemes, women would have lost 8.1% of their wages in the second quarter, compared with 5.4% for men, according to a sample of 28 European countries, the ILO report showed.
Those in lower-skilled jobs lost more working hours than higher-paying managerial and professional jobs, it said.
“The growth in inequality created by the COVID-19 crisis threatens a legacy of poverty and social and economic instability that would be devastating,” ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said.
Source: Economy - investing.com
