European Women Still Earning Less Than Men

European women still earning less than men.

Collect data on the occupation of individuals in ways that capture the types of work done by women and men at as detailed a level as possible

The EU could also provide for Works Councils to include progress towards equal pay on their agendas.

Under the European Employment Strategy, EU member countries regularly produce a report detailing the work they have done to meet a number of common employment objectives including ‘promoting gender equality in employment and pay’. Actions to close the pay gap described in these plans include:

Sweden’s Equal Opportunities Act requires employers to publish wage data by gender and review pay structures and practices on an annual basis;

Belgium is training union and employers’ representatives on the possible discriminatory effects of job classification systems;

Netherlands is undertaking surveys of various businesses into possible under-payment and differences in remuneration between women and men

In the UK, Government, business, trade unions and the EOC are working together to promote voluntary pay reviews and the civil service is required to undertake pay reviews.

The European Commission, however, has been critical about the lack of progress made in the EU, described actions to counter the pay gap as weak and commented that “although the gender pay gap is widely recognized as a serious problem, new concrete targets and actions are rare”.