EU-WIDE GENDER PAY GAP ‘ABSURD'

By Andrew Taylor in London
Monday, July 23, 2007


Girls outperform boys at school and more women enter the labour market with a university degree than men, but a pay gap of 15 per cent persists across the European Union, according to a report published on Wednesday.

Vladimír Spidla, EU employment commissioner, said this was “an absurd situation” and needed to change. The report said the gender pay gap had narrowed only slightly since 1995 when it was 17 per cent.

He called on member states to raise awareness of anti-discrimination laws and make sure they were properly applied. Employers should be encouraged to introduce equal pay and EU social funds used to help close pay gaps, he said.

“Sometimes we see pure discrimination. But often reasons are hidden: women do more unpaid work, like taking care of the household and dependants; more women work part-time and often the women-dominated sectors are on a lower pay scale. We must shift up a gear now,” Mr Spidla said.

The biggest pay differences were in Cyprus and Estonia, at 25 per cent. This was closely followed by Slovakia with a 24 per cent gap. In Germany the pay difference has grown – by 1 percentage point since 1995 to 22 per cent. In Britain it was 20 per cent, down from 26 per cent 10 years earlier.

Jobs requiring similar qualifications or experience tended to be paid less when they were dominated by women, the commission found. “In some countries nannies earned less than car mechanics, supermarket cashiers less than warehouse workers, nurses less than the police,” it said.

Women's career paths were “often interrupted, slower and shorter, and hence less well paid than men's” due to a combination of factors, such as the fact that they tend to do more part-time work and take more frequent career breaks. The study found that women encountered more obstacles on their career paths and lagged behind men in attaining managerial positions.

The commission said pay gaps tended to widen with age and length of service. Differences increased to more than 30 per cent in the 50-59 age group compared with 7 per cent for the under-30s. They widened to as high as 32 per cent for women with more than 30 years' service in a company compared with a 22 per cent difference for women with one to five years' service