EPSU publishes full gender pay gap survey: Still a long way to go for gender equality!

March 2011

On the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day EPSU publishes finalized Gender Pay Gap survey from 27 European countries

The gender pay gap remains a huge obstacle to fair gender equality. It has to be tackled and addressed with effective measures, to avoid the risk that it begins to widen under current economic circumstances and austerity measures. In particular as the gender pay gap is major indicator of inequality at the workplace.

Two resolutions were agreed at the 2009 Congress that committed EPSU and its affiliates to two major challenges. Firstly, there is the target of closing the gender pay gap by five percentage points by the next Congress in 2014). Secondly, the aim is to investigate how to deal with the fact that sectors and occupations where women form the majority of the workforce tend to have lower pay (for both men and women) than those where men form the majority of workers).

The report highlights issues in relation to pay gap statistics, the concentration of women in low-paying jobs, part-time work or e.g. the transparency of pay systems.

In order to monitor progress on these issues EPSU has carried out a broad survey of affiliates and has received 47 answers from 27 countries. This aimed firstly to find out the size of the gender pay gap in EPSU’s sectors across Europe.

Affiliates will be asked to update this information each year in order to assess progress towards closing the pay gap up until the next EPSU Congress in 2014.

A report summarising some of the findings is available here:

• Pay Gap Report

- All of the survey responses are available here, listed by subject