Gender Pay Gap Analysis

I. Introduction

The gender pay gap is currently a prominent issue for women in Europe as will be demonstrated in the subject to be explored; equal pay rights. Across the EU Member States the scale of the percentage of gender pay gap (GPG) varies widely. However, due to national legislation and efficacy this changes have been created in the way women earn. This essay will examine the debate of gender equality in the work space and the ways in which women can be protected by equal pay rights.

The GPG demonstrates the difference between men and women solely based on their income. According to the European Commission, “The gender pay gap is the difference between men’s and women’s pay, based on the average difference in gross hourly earnings

The negative GPG represents the fact that the women’s gross hourly earnings on average were higher than that of men. Similarly, there was also a wide range in pay gaps for full-time workers ranging between 1.9% in Italy to 20.3% in Hungary.

The UK and European equal pay legislation was created in an attempt to lessen the pay gap, or potentially to completely close it. The legislation is based on the fundamental principle that men and women are supposed to receive equal pay for equal work. Thus meaning, a man and woman working in the same position should be entitled to the same pay.

Closing the pay gap has been a long term goal set by the EU, aiming to achieve gender equality in the work place. The EU as a whole intends to close the gender pay gap and to earn the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy which is the EU’s growth strategy for this decade. “The Strategy aims to create more and better jobs, to achieve a higher employment rate for women as part of the overall employment target of 75% for all 20-64 year-olds, and to ensure that there are 20 million fewer people in or at risk of poverty and social exclusion by 2020.” Ultimately the EU has already been progressive in working toward these

The Equality Act (The Act) entails the entitlement of a woman doing equal work with a man in the same employment to equality in pay and other terms and conditions. This protects women in the workplace in the sense that they do not have the disadvantage where they are paid less for working the same job or a similar job that entails comparable skills. The Act also entails a sex equality clause into a woman’s contract automatically, making sure that she has contractual terms that are no less favourable than her male colleague 's. In this case, the man who she is claiming equal pay to is known as her comparator. A woman is eligible to claim pay that is equal to her comparators based on whether or not they have the same occupation, or a job that requires similar skills and