EU reaches agreement on closing the gender pay gap
Pay Transparancy
Today, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission reached an agreement on a new EU directive on Pay transparency. The directive aims to ensure equal pay in the EU by highlighting the pay gap and giving employees more rights when it comes to pay. Greens/EFA strongly welcome the outcome of the trilogue negotiations.
Kira Marie Peter-Hansen, Greens/EFA MEP and European Parliament rapporteur for the Pay Transparency directive in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, comments:
"With this pay transparency agreement, the EU makes it clear the gender pay gap needs to be closed. That women are paid less than men should be a thing of the past. Today, we are making it clear that the EU takes gender equality seriously. Pay transparency is one of the best tools we have to close the pay gap and we are left with an ambitious agreement that can help end pay inequality in the EU. This directive will be written into the history books.
"The legislation will strengthen both employees, union representatives and trade unions in highlighting and raising equal pay issues. At the same time, we will put an end to secrecy clauses and ensure that employees are not prevented from talking about their pay.
“In the trilogue negotiations we managed to strengthen the text so that employers with more than a hundred employees had to publicly disclose their pay gap. The Commission had originally proposed that only employers with +250 employees were to be included. As Greens, we would have liked to see even more workplaces publish their pay gap, but I am still proud that we managed to improve the proposal so much.”
Terry Reintke MEP, Greens/EFA shadow rapporteur for the Pay Transparency directive in the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, comments:
"Historically, women's work has been undervalued and underpaid, and in the EU today, women still earn thirteen percent less per hour than men. This shows that the gender pay gap will not just magically disappear. Pay disclosure does not solve all the problems. But it can bring the pay gap to light and ensure that action is taken where it is needed.
"For the first time in history, we are also including non-binary people in EU law. At the same time, we have ensured that intersectional discrimination will be taken into account when deciding about compensation. This is a great step forward."
