EU parliament calls on Commission to take action on gender pay gap

Karen Whiteley
WVoN co-editor

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have called on the Commission to introduce more effective sanctions to reduce the gender pay gap in member states.

A resolution adopted unanimously by the Committee on Women’s Rights on Tuesday argues that a European-wide strategy is needed to tackle the pay gap between women and men.

Throughout the European Union (EU), women earn on average 16.4% less than men.  In some member states the gap has widened despite a 2008 EU directive which enforced the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women.

The directive introduced “”dissuasive penalties” for gender pay discrimination but legal experts said no profound changes had made made in national legislations as a result.

Tuesday’s resolution also notes that no sanctions have been taken against employers under the directive.

MEPs are urging the EU Commission to better enforce existing legislation by imposing more effective sanctions against countries which don’t comply with the directive, such as penalties, administrative fines and disqualification from public benefits and subsidies.

And they want the Commission to propose new measures to oppose inequality in pay between the sexes in all relevant EU policies and national programmes. They have also called on national governments to increase cooperation and develop new ideas to tackle the gender pay gap.

“The pay gap starts to be visible after a woman’s return to work from her first maternity leave, and grows with age and at an educational level” said rapporteur Edit Bauer.

“All this makes the gender pay gap a serious social problem, resulting in feminisation of poverty. Although the EU has legislation on equal pay for equal work, the gap among women and men is persistent”, she added.

The resolution comes a year after a report by the Parliament, which warned that poverty was becoming a female issue, with single mothers and elderly women most at risk.

It called on the Commission to cut the gender pay gap by 1% a year in order to produce a 10 per cent cut by 2020.