European Parliament : MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION on the gender pay gap - B9-0069/2020

B9‑0069/2020

European Parliament resolution on the gender pay gap

(2019/2870(RSP))

The European Parliament,

- having regard to Article 2, Article 3(3) and Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union,

- having regard to Articles 8, 151, 153 and 157 of and Protocol 2 to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU),

- having regard to the European Pillar of Social Rights,

- having regard to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular Goals 1, 5, 8 and 10 and their respective targets and indicators,

- having regard to the Commission's annual report for 2019 on equality between women and men in the EU,

- having regard to the Council conclusions of 13 June 2019 on Closing the Gender Pay Gap: Key Policies and Measures,

- having regard to the Council conclusions of 22 November 2019 on Gender-Equal Economies in the EU: the Way Forward,

- having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the Commission on Better Law-Making[1],

- having regard to Rule 132(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas combating the gender pay gap remains a priority for all Member States;

B. whereas Member States have the primary responsibility for ensuring social progress and economic growth through, for example, national structural reforms and sound fiscal policies; whereas EU initiatives cannot and should not seek to replace national responsibilities in this regard;

C. whereas gender equality policies are drivers of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and a precondition for promoting prosperity, competitiveness and employment, as well as inclusiveness and social cohesion;

D. whereas across the EU, women's earnings are disproportionately lower than men's; whereas according to Eurostat, women's average gross hourly pay is lower than men's and the gender pay gap in the EU is still approximately 16 % and narrowing only very slowly, or even widening in some Member States; whereas, moreover, the gender overall earnings gap indicator shows a gap of around 40 % in the EU-28;

E. whereas the gender pay gap is defined as the difference between the average gross hourly earnings of men and women, expressed as a percentage of the average gross hourly earnings of men; whereas the gender gap in gross monthly earnings among employees aged 15-24 years (7 %) was more than five times lower than among employees aged 65 years or above (gender gap of 38 %); whereas poverty is mostly concentrated in families where women are the sole earners, with 35 % of single mothers in the EU at risk of poverty in 2017 compared to 28 % of single fathers[2];

F. whereas more than half of women of working age with disabilities are economically inactive; whereas in all Member States the severe material deprivation rate of women with disabilities is higher than that of women without disabilities;

G. whereas the gender pay gap is the result of a whole range of gender imbalances on the labour market, including gender segregation in education, training and employment, occupational segregation, gender imbalance in managerial and decision-making positions and women's more frequent engagement in part-time work;

H. whereas 30.8 % of employed women aged 20-64 in the EU worked on a part-time basis in 2018, compared with 8 % for men;

I. whereas working part-time so as to look after children or incapacitated adults was reported more often by women (29 %) than men (6 %); whereas looking after children, the elderly, sick or disabled family members and incapacitated adults requires commitment, is seldom paid and is not adequately valued by society, even though it is of enormous social importance, contributes to social welfare and can be measured by economic indicators such as GDP;

J. whereas although women account for almost 60 % of graduates in the EU, they remain disproportionally underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and digital careers; whereas, as a result, inequality in occupations is taking on new forms and, in spite of the investment in education, young women are still twice as likely as young men to be economically inactive;

K. whereas the EU has means to help Member States exchange best practices to assist those Member States in need, particularly in the field of equality and the gender pay gap;

1. Calls on the Member States to strengthen their efforts to reduce the gender pay gap by enforcing the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value at a national level, including measures to improve pay transparency;

2. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to implement policies that promote the employment of women and their financial independence, and in particular policies that promote the integration of women from marginalised groups into the labour market;

3. Calls on the Member States to take effective measures to promote equality in education and employment in order to address labour market segmentation by investing in formal, informal and non-formal education and lifelong learning and vocational training for women to ensure they have access to high-quality employment and opportunities so as to reskill and upskill for future labour market demand; calls, in particular, for greater promotion of entrepreneurship, STEM subjects, digital education and financial literacy for girls from an early age in order to combat existing educational stereotypes and ensure more women enter developing and well paid sectors;

4. Calls on the Member States to take measures and implement existing EU measures effectively in order to facilitate the reconciliation of work and family life by, for example, improving the provision of accessible, quality and affordable care services;

5. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take an integrated approach in all efforts to close the gender pay gap and to promote gender equality, including by fostering synergies between employment strategies and other economic and social policies, such as youth, education, tax, family benefits, social protection and healthcare, in accordance with their competencies;

6. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to encourage dialogue with the relevant stakeholders, including social partners, businesses, national equality bodies and organisations working in this field;

7. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments of the Member States.

[2]Calculation by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC).