Brussels, 28/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - In comparison with men, women are still working two months for free in Europe (59 days). The Commission will be working on an initiative to significantly turn things around on this matter.
The latest figures show that the European gender wage disparity remains unchanged. European Equal Pay Day is marked on 28 February, for the second year in a row. On average, women workers are still earning 16.4% less than their male colleagues working in the same job.
This trend does not appear to be changing, either, except in Denmark, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Austria and Cyprus. The Hungarians, Portuguese, Estonians, Bulgarians, Irish and Spanish are the worst offenders in this area. According to the European Commission, the causes for women working two days for nothing are due to a lack of transparency in pay systems, a lack of legal clarity in the definition of work of equal value, and procedural obstacles about bringing a successful equal pay claim or including information about the pay levels for categories of employees. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, Viviane Reding confirmed that the European Commission is currently working on a European initiative to tackle this problem. On European Equal Pay Day, the Commissioner deplored gender pay disparities and regretted that the crisis had not improved the situation, “which has seen men's earnings decrease, rather than women's earnings increase”. (MD)