Gender pay gap: urgent progress is needed
To mark International Women’s Day, and as part of the follow-up to its 11th Congress in Seville in May 2007, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has carried out the first of what will become an annual 8 March survey. Results show that women’s trade union membership is increasing, reflecting their stronger presence on the labour market, and helping to counter the drop in union membership. However, women are still inadequately represented in leadership positions, and the pay gap is an ongoing and major source of concern.
The aim of this survey is to assess progress in reducing the gender representation gap in trade unions and to highlight successful gender-mainstreaming activities within ETUC-affiliated organisations.
Women are driving up trade union membership across a majority of ETUC affiliates, according to the results of the first 8 March survey. Eighteen national confederations have reported rises in their female membership ranging from 0.2% to 2.5%, over the last 12 months. In a number of cases, these increases have occurred alongside a fall in the number of male members, reflecting the overall growth of women’s employment across Europe and showing that for some trade unions, attracting more women is playing a vital role in maintaining membership strength.
In trade union leadership, women’s presence is still low, and little if any progress has been made in this area in the past year. Overall, it seems that despite the fact that women are stemming the drop in trade union membership, they are still not progressing fast enough to top-level positions. The Seville Congress addressed this issue. There is significant room for improvement and it is now time to implement concrete measures.
Equal pay continues to be a key issue for nearly all trade unions that took part in the survey. A large number noted that the actual pay gap is in fact significantly higher than estimated by the European Commission, underlining the need for trade unions to continue their work in this area. The issue is one of the priorities of the ETUC’s current wages campaign. It is unacceptable that there is still an average 15% gender pay gap in the European Union.
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