The chart below shows the percentage of difference in income between men and women from 1978 to 2008. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The chart compares five countries in terms of the proportion of male and female difference in net salary between 1978 and 2008. Overall, the income gap between genders witnessed a declining trend in Japan, America, France and the UK over the 30-year period. However, figures for Australia only followed the pattern until 1998 and went up afterwards. The respective proportions of the difference in men and women income in the US, France and the UK were approximately 33%, 29% and 19% in 1978. There was a similar decline to 26% in both figures of the US and France in the next 30 years while the former stayed slightly higher than the latter. Simultaneously, a consistent decline was seen in the UK’s income gap, which maintained at the lowest of under 20% in 2008. At the same time, the largest rate was seen in Japan at a rate of approximately 50%, which was almost two times as large as that of Australia. The inequality in earnings between men and women in Japan narrowed down in the next 30 years, specifically at 41% in 2008, and still remained at the highest among others. In the meantime, despite having a 2% decrease in the income gap, figures for Australia witnessed a sharp increase to 25%.