Equal pay day: the right time to take a step forward for equal pay for male and female workers

"The progress in closing the Gender Pay Gap (GPG) has been very slow over the last decades and still stands at an average of 16.4% across the EU. Women still work 59 days more than men in the EU to earn the same money. We should ask ourselves how unfair and contrary to our core values this is”, said Mariya Gabriel MEP, EPP Group Spokeswoman in the EP’s Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee, on the eve of the 2014 European Equal Pay Day.

This EU event symbolises the extra number of days that women would need to work to match the amount of money earned by men: currently 59 days, meaning this year the day falls on 28 February.

"We are still waiting for a review of Directive 2006/54/EC on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation", explained Gabriel.

Edit Bauer MEP, EP Rapporteur on the ‘Application of the principle of equal pay for male and female workers for equal work or work of equal value’, added: "A persistent, unchanged GPG is the result of a lack of effectiveness of European legislation is this field. It shows that the European Commission and the Member States are not spending sufficient efforts to close the gap, thus the GPG remains a shameful example of gender-based discrimination in the 21st century."

For the two MEPs, the EU must propose something concrete as soon as possible to address the problem through a holistic and multi-level approach. "European women may no longer want to wait for improvements, while at the same time the question of equality between men and women is gaining more and more attention within the EU", they said.

"It is thus the right time to take a step forward: European women, European citizens count on us and trust us to make things better", concluded Gabriel.