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European companies will have to provide insight in potential gender pay gaps, following a political deal reached by the European Parliament and the bloc’s member states.
Groups with at least 100 staff will have to disclose information that will make it easier to compare employee salaries, according to a Parliament statement published on Thursday. Across the EU, women on average earn 13% less than their male counterparts, according to data published by Eurostat.
While female employees are paid less in every EU member state, there are large variations between individual countries. Luxembourg has the smallest gap with 0.7%, while Latvian women receive on average 22.3% less than their male colleagues, the largest gap in the bloc.
“Historically, women’s work has been undervalued and underpaid,” Kira Marie Peter-Hansen of the parliament’s employment and social affairs committee is quoted as saying. “Pay transparency does not eradicate all kinds of discrimination, but it can shed light on the pay gap and ensure that action is taken where it’s needed,” she adds.
Over the past decade, the EU-wide gender pay gap has only decreased minimally.
As a next step, the parliament and European Council will have to formally approve the new rules, before they can come into force 20 days after their publication in the EU Official Journal. The deal comes after the EU approved a political agreement reached in June on a law that would require listed companies to move toward 40% female representation in non-executive director positions by 2026.
Katharina Rosskopf reports for Bloomberg News.
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