Pay transparency can play a crucial role in ensuring substantial progress in reducing the gender pay gap. It unveils the systematic undervalueing of women’s work at the root of the persistent gender pay inequalities. It highlights the feminisation-segregation of occupations and the low pay of work performed by women. Pay transparency must support trade unions’in negotiating to reduce unfair pay differentials as well as to better tackle low pay in general.
The ETUC adopted a Resolution calling for a Pay Transparency Directive: https://www.etuc.org/en/document/etuc-resolution-gender-pay-transparency-directive
A leaflet summarizing ETUC demands was also produced: https://www.etuc.org/en/publication/gender-pay-gap-end-secrecy as well as a series of video-calls by European trade union leaders.
In the run-up of International Women's Day 2020, the ETUC organised a public event (video) to demand the European Commission to introduce such legislation to end the secrecy about pay, to end the gender pay gap.
On the same topic, the ETUC published a series of press releases:
- Pay Transparency Directive: good principles, inadequate tools
- Unions publish own equal pay directive to protest Commission delay
- EU gender pay gap won’t end until 2104 without action
- Covid heroes need collective bargaining to win equal pay, confirms OECD
- European Commission urged to stand up for women on the COVID-19 frontline
- Gender pay equality on a tightrope in Berlaymont protest