The EU Commission aims to combat gender pay gap by asking countries to implement pay transparency measures in a strategy rolled out on Thursday (5 March).
The commission is planning to put forward “binding measures on pay transparency” later this year, after a consultation with employers, employees, and EU member states.
Even though more women graduate from universities, they earn on average 16 percent less than men do and only eight percent of CEOs of the EU’s largest companies are women, the commission pointed out in its gender strategy.
Women also receive 30 percent less pension then men, while 75 percent of unpaid care and domestic work is done by women.
“You cannot compare salaries unless you know what people are getting paid,” equality commissioner Helena Dalli said, saying transparency is necessary to be able to move on to close the gender pay gap.
Thirteen EU countries have no pay transparency measures. Others have different tools, for instance in Germany there is the right to information in companies with at least 200 workers.
The commission will also give a new push to a legislation put forward first in 2012 aimed to bring more women to corporate boards to at least 40 percent.
