The wage gap between women and men
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Text adopted
by the Standing Committee, acting on behalf of the Assembly,
on 12 March 2010 (see Doc.
12140, report of the Committee on Equal Opportunities
for Women and Men, rapporteur: Mr Wille; and Doc. 12151, opinion of the Committee
on Economic Affairs and Development, rapporteur: Mr Konečný). See
also Recommendation 1907
(2010).
- Thesaurus
1. Discrimination against women in
the labour market has a long history – and so have efforts to fight
this discrimination. One of the key principles in this domain, the
right to equal pay for equal work, was already enshrined in the
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the 1957 Treaty
of Rome, which founded the European Economic Community. Subsequently,
this right was enlarged and the right to equal pay for work of equal
value was enshrined in the Council of Europe’s 1961 European Social
Charter (ETS No. 35) (as well as in the 1996 revised European Social
Charter (ETS No. 163)) and in the 1975 European Community Directive 75/117/EEC
devoted to the subject.
2. Despite the recognition of this fundamental right, the wage
gap between women and men, measured as the “relative difference
in average gross hourly earnings between women and men”, is estimated
to be 17.4% in the European Union at the moment – and even higher
worldwide. Measured over a lifetime rather than on the basis of
hourly earnings, the wage gap grows wider still, which explains
the feminisation of poverty (in particular for single mothers and
elderly women).
3. Several factors are put forward to explain the wage gap between
women and men: horizontal and vertical segregation in the labour
market (commonly referred to as “glass walls” and “glass ceilings”),
women’s supposedly lower qualifications and lesser experience, and
their atypical working hours and career structures due to childbirth
and care responsibilities. However, over half of the typical gender
wage gap cannot be objectively explained through such “structural”
factors and is, in reality, due to the persistence of old-fashioned discrimination
against women: differences in access to education, training and
the labour market itself; biased evaluation, pay and promotion systems,
as well as nefarious gender stereotypes and outdated gender roles.
4. It is unacceptable that, over sixty years after the right
to equal pay was first proclaimed, this right remains so widely
and systematically violated, without even receiving much attention.
The elimination of the wage gap between women and men should be
considered as a priority, in both the public and private sectors.
This would not only remedy a deep-seated social injustice, but would
also significantly boost productivity, competitiveness and national
income throughout the European economies, as well as reduce governments’
social expenditure.
5. The Parliamentary Assembly believes that there is a link between
the gender wage gap and gender equality in other spheres – such
as equal rights and opportunities for girls and boys; equal participation
of women and men in political, public and economic decision making
and a fairer sharing of care and household responsibilities between
women and men – and that progress in one sphere has the power to
influence progress in the other sphere and vice versa. The Assembly
refers to a number of resolutions and recommendations it has recently
adopted on these subjects (in particular
Resolution 1669 (2009) and
Recommendation 1872 (2009) on
the rights of today’s girls: the rights of tomorrow’s women), stresses
their continued validity and calls for their full implementation.
6. The Assembly recommends that member states:
6.1 ensure that the right to equal
pay for work of equal value is enshrined in their domestic legislation, if
this is not already the case; that employers are obliged to respect
this right (and incur penalties if they do not) and that employees
can have recourse to the judicial process to pursue their claims
with regard to this right, without incurring risks to their employment;
6.2 collect reliable and standardised statistics on women’s
and men’s wages, not only on the basis of gross hourly earnings,
but also over the lifecycle;
6.3 promote fair job classification and remuneration systems,
including in the private sector, by:
6.3.1 opening discussions
with the social partners to eliminate discrimination in job value
and job classification between men and women;
6.3.2 starting discussions with the social partners to raise
the status of “women’s” sectors;
6.4 aim to increase women’s labour market participation rate
and work against the pitfall of part-time work by encouraging all
measures seeking to improve the care of children and the elderly
outside the home, and a more equal sharing of care and household
responsibilities between women and men;
6.5 follow the Norwegian and Icelandic models, and a recent
French initiative, which require that a minimum of 40% of members
of certain companies’ boards be female, as an enabling factor;
6.6 file an annual progress report with their parliaments
on 8 March, International Women’s Day, indicating the progress of
consultations with the social partners and the reduction of the
gender wage gap and of segregation in the labour market, until such
time as discrimination in job value and job classification and the
gender wage gap and segregation in the labour market have been eliminated.
7. The Assembly calls on the social partners, employers’ associations
and trade unions, to respect and defend the right to equal pay for
work of equal value, inter alia by
promoting and adopting fair and transparent job classification systems
and wage scales.
