Parliament debates and approves an agreement with EU Ministers on new legislation requiring EU companies to disclose salary information of their employees. With the aim of closing the gender pay gap, the new law includes dissuasive penalties for employers that do not comply with equal pay rules. Extracts from the debate and from the vote.

Brussels

statement

debate

plenary session

vote

Women's rights / Equal opportunities (T2)

gender balance (T)

REGNER, Evelyn (S&D, AT)

WALSH, Maria (EPP, IE)

PETER-HANSEN, Kira Marie (Greens/EFA, DK)

RAFAELA, Samira (Renew, NL)

DALLI, Helena (MT, EC)

DE LA PISA CARRIÓN, Margarita (PfE, ES)

Equal pay for equal work between men and women: extracts from the debate and the vote

Title: Equal pay for equal work between men and women: extracts from the debate and the vote (EBS) 

SOUNDBITE (English), Kira Marie ETER-HANSEN (Greens/EFA, DK), Rapporteur, Today we are here to vote on the best known tool for closing the gender pay gap to combat gender pay inequalities and pay discrimination. The Pay Transparency Directive is a huge achievement for gender equality and it will help close the current persistent gender pay gap in the European Union on 14%. Pay transparency has to value a flag at its centre because employees should be valued for their work regardless of their gender. With this vote, we abolish pay secrecy contract. We strengthen workers rights and workers individual right to information, and we ask employers to report and to fix their pay gaps. Furthermore, we ensure that all employers have pay structures in place, ensuring that the treaty based concept of equal pay for equal work is actually enforced. With this vote, we empower workers and we strengthen the role of social partners.

SOUNDBITE (English), Samira RAFAELA (Renew, NL), Rapporteur, I am incredibly proud to stand in this house and to say to all women in Europe, we are here for you. In fact, we can say this to all workers in Europe. This directive says you deserve to be treated equally and you deserve to be paid fairly regardless of your gender, your background, or your physical characteristics. With this directive, we have secured the right to information in Europe for all our citizens, and we will finally have the binding legislation we need to tackle pay discrimination in all our Member States. If we had left it up to the markets, the gender pay gap would only correct itself by 2086. How could we justify this to women? How could we explain this to ourselves? We cannot.

SOUNDBITE (English), Helena DALLI, European Commissioner for Equality, The Pay Transparency Directive is a crucial tool in our fight for gender equality. This new legal framework will trigger a culture change in the workplace across the Union to require employers to provide information on average pay levels broken down by gender for all workers performing the same job or work of equal value. And this will enable workers to identify and challenge gender pay discrimination based on sex. The directive will also require employers with more than 100 workers to publish information on the gender pay gap in their organisation. It will increase transparency and accountability and encourage employers to take action to close the pay gap. Having the information on pay or gender pay gap is not enough, of course. Workers must also have the possibility to enforce their right to equal pay if they believe they are being discriminated. This is why the directive provides for stronger enforcement mechanisms.

SOUNDBITE (English), Maria WALSH (EPP, IE), This pay gap remains unexplained for many and cannot be linked to the individual worker education or working time. And we need this directive as greater levels of pay, transparency will uncover unjustified gender based differences and empower the victims. Many victims of pay discrimination to seek redress. Our workers need the tools to compare salaries and ensure that they are paid equally for the work that they do. And this directive is that tool.

SOUNDBITE (German), Evelyn REGNER (S&amp;D, AT), All female employees will have the opportunity to receive the pay information each year, and this transparency will allow the systematic poor pay of women to be to be brought to an end, not just salaries, but also company cards and other fringe benefits. Often it's these fringe benefits that makes the difference they will be earning and they'll be there through protection protective mechanisms. They'll be able to enforce their rights. This will allow all employees to talk about their wages and salaries openly, especially with trade unions. So this brings all the secrecy to an end.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Margarita DE LA PISA CARRION (ECR, ES), Some of you call this intersectionality. I call it injustice. This is just a slogan directive where the title has nothing to do with what do you want to impose on us? You're not seeking gender equality, but you want to introduce gender ideology into our laws. You want to force member states to do things. You want to dominate companies and our lives for a situation where talent will not be recognised.

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, EP President, announces the start voting session

Equal pay for equal work between men and women: extracts from the debate and the vote

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