Progress: Procedure completed
| Role | Committee | Rapporteur | Shadows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead | FEMM |
REGNER Evelyn ( S&D)
|
Lead committee dossier:
Legal Basis:
RoP 136-p5
Legal Basis:
RoP 136-p5Subjects
Events
The European Parliament adopted by 493 votes to 82, with 79 abstentions a resolution on the gender pay gap tabled by the EPP, S&D, Renew and Greens/EFA.
Persistent payment inequalities between men and women
According to the resolution, women’s earnings are disproportionately lower than men’s. The EU gender gap in hourly pay is 16 %, although this varies significantly across Member States. While only 8.7 % of men in the EU work part-time, almost a third of women across the EU (31.3 %) do so. The ramifications of the gender pay gap include a 37 % gender gap in pension income, a situation that will persist for decades to come, and an unequal level of economic independence between women and men, with 1 in 5 women workers in the EU belonging to the lowest wage group, compared to 1 in 10 men.
The causes of the gender pay gap are numerous. On the one hand, gender-segregated labour markets and sectors, a lack of work-life balance options and services, with women being the main caregiver for both children and other dependents, the persistence of ‘glass ceilings’ not allowing women to reach the top levels of their career and thus top-level salaries, and on the other hand, gender stereotypes about women’s roles and aspirations, gender bias in wage structures and wage-fixing institutions, and deep-rooted expectations about women’s role as mothers leading to career breaks, interruptions, or a move to part-time work, as well as a lack of pay transparency.
Although women account for almost 60 % of graduates in the EU, they remain disproportionally under-represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and digital careers. As a result, inequality in occupations is taking on new forms and, in spite of the investment in education, young women are still twice as likely as young men to be economically inactive.
Equal pay for equal work
Parliament recalled that equal pay for equal work or work of equal value is one of the EU’s founding principles, and that the Member States have an obligation to eliminate discrimination on grounds of gender with regard to all aspects and conditions of remuneration for the same work or for work of equal value. It strongly regretted the fact that the gender pay gap for work of equal value continues to persist with minimal improvement in the EU average figure over the last decade.
It called on the Commission to:
- come forward with an ambitious new EU Strategy for Gender Equality,
-revise the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan by the end of 2020, which should set clear targets for the Member States to reduce the gender pay gap over the next five years ;
- remain committed to tabling measures to introduce binding pay transparency measures in the first 100 days of the new Commission’s mandate;
- promote the role of the social partners and of collective bargaining at all levels (national, sectoral, local and company) in the upcoming pay transparency legislation;
- present a full analysis of the gender pay gap in the EU institutions on EU Equal Pay Day.
For their part, Member States are invited to:
- strengthen their efforts to definitively close the gender pay gap by strictly enforcing the equal pay principle, ensuring that wages for part-time workers are in line with the full-time equivalent, adopting legislation increasing pay transparency;
- strengthen the protection of maternity, paternity and parenthood in labour legislation, namely by increasing the amount of leave and guaranteeing that it is fully paid and reducing the number of working hours during breastfeeding, and by taking suitable measures to enforce such protection, but also by investing in the provision of a free public network of early childhood education and care services and long-term care services;
- propose measures that increase social protection in the fields of unemployment, sickness, workplace accidents and occupational diseases;
- implement specific measures to combat the risk of poverty for older women, by increasing pensions but also by offering social support;
- combat gendered labour market segmentation by investing in formal, informal and non-formal education and lifelong learning and vocational training for women to ensure they have access to high-quality employment and opportunities so as to reskill and upskill for future labour market changes;
- promote entrepreneurship, STEM subjects, digital education and financial literacy for girls from an early age in order to combat existing educational stereotypes and ensure more women enter developing and well-paid sectors.
Documents
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0069/2020
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0073/2020
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0083/2020
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0084/2020
- Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
- Decision by Parliament: T9-0025/2020
- Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0069/2020
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0073/2020
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0083/2020
- Motion for a resolution: B9-0084/2020
Activities
- Clare DALY
Plenary Speeches (1)Institutional Motions (1)
- Manuel BOMPARD
Plenary Speeches (1)Institutional Motions (1)
- Mick WALLACE
Plenary Speeches (1)Institutional Motions (1)
- Frances FITZGERALD
Plenary Speeches (1)Institutional Motions (1)
- Dita CHARANZOVÁ
Plenary Speeches (1)
- Sven GIEGOLD
Institutional Motions (1)
- Heidi HAUTALA
Institutional Motions (1)
- Yannick JADOT
Institutional Motions (1)
- Agnes JONGERIUS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Stelios KOULOGLOU
Institutional Motions (1)
- Marisa MATIAS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Rovana PLUMB
Institutional Motions (1)
- María Soraya RODRÍGUEZ RAMOS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Molly SCOTT CATO
Institutional Motions (1)
- Michaela ŠOJDROVÁ
Plenary Speeches (1)
- Ernest URTASUN
Institutional Motions (1)
- Miguel URBÁN CRESPO
Institutional Motions (1)
- Sandra PEREIRA
Institutional Motions (1)
- Sira REGO
Institutional Motions (1)
- Jordi CAÑAS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Gwendoline DELBOS-CORFIELD
Institutional Motions (1)
- Nicolaus FEST
Institutional Motions (1)
- José GUSMÃO
Institutional Motions (1)
- Henrike HAHN
Institutional Motions (1)
- Pierrette HERZBERGER-FOFANA
Institutional Motions (1)
- Niyazi KIZILYÜREK
Institutional Motions (1)
- Marcel KOLAJA
Plenary Speeches (1)
- Joachim KUHS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Anne-Sophie PELLETIER
Institutional Motions (1)
- Alexandra Louise Rosenfield PHILLIPS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Manu PINEDA
Institutional Motions (1)
- Dragoş PÎSLARU
Institutional Motions (1)
- Samira RAFAELA
Institutional Motions (1)
- Eugenia RODRÍGUEZ PALOP
Institutional Motions (1)
- Irène TOLLERET
Institutional Motions (1)
- Idoia VILLANUEVA RUIZ
Institutional Motions (1)
- Stéphane BIJOUX
Institutional Motions (1)
- Sylvie BRUNET
Institutional Motions (1)
- Francisco GUERREIRO
Institutional Motions (1)
- Naomi LONG
Institutional Motions (1)
- Karen MELCHIOR
Institutional Motions (1)
- Chrysoula ZACHAROPOULOU
Institutional Motions (1)
- Guido REIL
Plenary Speeches (1)
- Jane BROPHY
Institutional Motions (1)
- Alexis GEORGOULIS
Institutional Motions (1)
- Jackie JONES
Institutional Motions (1)
- Barbara Ann GIBSON
Institutional Motions (1)
- Radka MAXOVÁ
Institutional Motions (1)
- Elżbieta RAFALSKA
Institutional Motions (1)
- Leszek MILLER
Plenary Speeches (1)
- Monica SEMEDO
Institutional Motions (1)
- Véronique TRILLET-LENOIR
Institutional Motions (1)
- Ciarán CUFFE
Institutional Motions (1)
- Shaffaq MOHAMMED
Institutional Motions (1)
- Maria-Manuel LEITÃO-MARQUES
Institutional Motions (1)
- Elena LIZZI
Plenary Speeches (1)
ECR
NI
GUE/NGL
ID
Verts/ALE
PPE
Renew