PES Manifesto

PES Women President: Women and men are equal - also when it's pay day

Published Wednesday, May 21, 2008 at 14:13
by Zita_Gurmai (544 views and 1 comments)

Thanks to PES activist Martina Preuss for her interesting post about Equal Pay Day in Germany. I am very glad to know that German colleagues also have a day of action for equal pay.

The Treaty of Rome from 1957 clearly states equal pay for equal work. 50 years later we still have the problem: there is 15 percent difference in the wages of European women and men. It is a very huge gap; it means that women have to work 54 days extra to earn the same wage as a male colleague.

2007 was the European Year of Equal Opportunities and to bring attention to the problem of wage inequality PES Women took action on 22 February: the day where women will have worked 54 days extra and earned the same salary as men. We launched a campaign, ‘Gender Pay Gap – Shut It!’, and called for Commissioner Vladimir Spidla (together me in the photo) and Social Affair ministers across Europe to take action and close the wage gap.

In my opinion fighting inequality should rank high in the PES manifesto – not only taking action against discrimination of women, but also of disabled people and minority groups.

Post cards from the PES Women President
PES Women brings together women - MP, MEPs and activists - from PES member parties to discuss and promote gender equality. This week Zita Gurmai, President of PES Women, comments on some of the ideas put forward on Yourspace. This is the second of four post cards from the PES Women President.

Tags: wages, women