Denmark
The FOA public services union is running a campaign to alert the public to the worrying trend of increasing income inequality. The union quotes a recent analysis that finds that over the last 30 years the gap between the highest paid and the lowest - many of the health and social care workers represented by FOA - has doubled. On average the top income bracket now get five times more than the lowest paid, compared to 2.5 times in 1985.
Read more at > FOA (DK)
The Party of European Socialists and the group of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament have launched a campaign to highlight the persistent problem of gender inequality in pensions provision and to put pressure on the European Commission to take effective measures to deal with the issue. Read more at > PES (EN)
A new analysis from the Hans Böckler Foundation reveals how the gap between the lowest and highest paid has grown significantly in Germany since the mid-1990s and is now wider than in most other northern and west European countries. The report also notes that unemployment among unqualified workers has been increasing, undermining arguments that the spread of low wages will boost employment opportunities for the unskilled. The analysis points out that women and part-time workers are particularly likely to be in low-paying jobs. [Read more at > Hans Böckler (DE)->http://www.boeckler.de/cps/rde
The VPOD/SSP public service federation is supporting the campaign for gender pay equality organised by the SGB/USS union confederation. In the latest issue of its magazine VPOD highlights the gender pay gap across the public services. A relatively small gap of 9.6% at federal level rises to 12.3% in health and social services at the cantonal level and to 18.8% among administrative workers in the cantons. The union argues that the reasons behind the pay gap include the undervaluing of typically female occupations and the fact that men are often more likely to benefit from bonuses and other
