18 September, 2024International Equal Pay Day, celebrated on 18 September, represents the longstanding efforts towards the achievement of equal pay for work of equal value. The gender pay gap persists globally, averaging 20 percent despite equal pay laws and widespread ratification of the ILO Equal Remuneration Convention. This gap stems from entrenched gender inequalities in society, the economy, and the labour market. Closing the gender pay gap is one of the ways to achieve social and economic justice for women.
To combat this, last year IndustriALL launched the Pay Equity Toolkit, developed by global expert on pay equity and gender-based violence Jane Pillinger, offering unions strategies to address pay inequality. Key steps include raising awareness, promoting pay transparency, tackling structural causes, and supporting low-paid workers in both formal and informal sectors.
Building on the toolkit, IndustriALL is developing training modules to help unions calculate, report, and negotiate on pay equity. Training will take place in Uganda and Turkey in 2024, with support from FES.
Key ILO stats (2024):
- Less than 50 percent of women participate in the labour force
- 60 percent of women are in informal jobs
- Women earn 20 percent less than men
- 70 percent of the global care workforce are women
- Women perform over 75 percent of unpaid care work
IndustriALL gender director Armelle Seby says:
“Fighting against the persisting gender pay gap has been defined by the women's committee as a priority for IndustriALL. Both the toolkit and the training modules are aimed to better equip affiliates to better understand what is the gender pay gap and how to conduct gender neutral job evaluations in order to fight against the undervaluing of women’s work. A big part of the training module is dedicated to train trade unions on how to bargain on all these issues. Training members of collective bargaining teams is key, so that trade unions will be able to put the value of the jobs, including feminised jobs, at the centre of collective bargaining and social dialogue.”