The 2nd March marks the European Equal Pay Day. This day recalls that the gender pay gap in the EU is alive and well.
Statistically, to earn the same as a man did in 2011, each woman must keep on working until 2nd March the next year.
PES has long campaigned to end the gender pay gap. PES Women have succeeded in keeping this key issue high on the agenda by helping establishing a European-wide Equal Pay Day.
PES Women President Zita Gurmai stated; “It is very sad that in 2012 we still have to ‘celebrate’ a day that reminds us of an unacceptable reality: men and women still don’t receive the same pay for the same work. Although the principle of equal pay for equal work was enshrined in the Treaty of Rome in 1957, in practice there is still a gender pay gap of 17% in the EU. This means that if a woman wants to earn the same as a man, she has to work almost an extra day each week, making it a 6-day working week for women. What will it take for the EU to say this is not acceptable? I call on the European Commission to develop concrete policies to end the gender pay gap once and for all”.
This year, in the framework of the PES campaign calling for a European Youth Guarantee, PES Women highlights the gender perspective of unemployment among youth and its long term effects, which contributes to gender pay gap.
In this context, PES Women will address the specific causes of youth unemployment among women, namely gender segregation in education and on the labour market, as well as the lack of work-family life balance.
PES Women’s proposals include:
NOTE: Previous PES Women actions included the campaigns ‘Gender Pay Gap – shut it!’ but also ‘Women and pensions: it’s different for women’, to raise awareness of the consequences of the gender pay gap over a whole life-span.
Check our