The World Health Organization has highlighted the plight of women in the healthcare sector saying they are earning less than their male counterparts.
WHO said the wage gap is unexplained, perhaps due to discrimination towards women.
"Mothers working in the health and care sector appear to suffer additional penalties," the global health body said on Thursday.
WHO said a new joint report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) found that women in the health and care sector face a larger gender pay gap than in other economic sectors, earning an average of 24 per cent less than male peers.
This followed comprehensive analysis on gender pay inequities based on factors such as age, education and working time.
It established that wages are often lower in economic sectors where women are predominant like in health where they account for 67 per cent of healthcare workers globally.
WHO noted that during a woman’s reproductive years, employment and gender pay gaps in the sector significantly increase.
"These gaps then persist throughout the rest of a woman’s working life," it noted in the report.
The report observed that a more equitable sharing of family duties between men and women could, in many instances, lead to women making different occupational choices.
Differences in age, education, working time and the participation of men and women in the public or private sectors only address part of the problem.
The reasons why women are less paid than men with similar labour market profiles in the health and care sector across the world remains, to a large extent, unexplained by labour market factors, the report said.
