International Equal Pay Day

The Launch of the 2nd Cohort of the EQUANOMICS Global Learning Lab on Gender Equal Economies.

Objectives 

Discuss Gender equality in turbulent times: Applying feminist economics in contexts of debt distress and changing economies. 

Present the results of the first cohort of the Global Learning Lab 

Launch the second cohort of Global Learning Lab and discuss the expectations of it. 

Watch Launch of the Global Learning Lab on Gender Equal Economies!

In high-income countries, a women earn 73 cents and men 1 dollar; compare to low-income countries where women earn 44 cents and mean 1 dollar. Despite a drop in the global unemployment rate to 4.9% in 2024, the ILO reports persistent inequalities in the labour market. Women in low-income countries are particularly affected. Read more:

Women made up 47% of the U.S. civilian labor force in 2023, up from 30% in 1950 – but growth has stagnated.

Gender parity in Europe (76.3%) surpasses the parity level in North America (75%) this year to rank first of eight geographic regions. Closely behind Europe and North America is Latin America and the Caribbean, with 74.3% parity. Trailing more than 5 percentage points behind Latin America and the Caribbean are Eurasia and Central Asia (69%) as well as East Asia and the Pacific (68.8%). SubSaharan Africa ranks 6th (68.2%), slightly below the global weighted average score (68.3%). Southern Asia (63.4%) overtakes the Middle East and North Africa (62.6%), which is, in 2023, the region furthest away from parity. – Across all subindexes, Europe has the highest gender parity of all regions at 76.3%, with one-third of countries in the region ranking in the top 20 and 20 out of 36 countries with at least 75% parity. Iceland, Norway and Finland are the best-performing countries, both in the region and in the world, while Hungary, Czech Republic and Cyprus rank at the bottom of the region. Overall, there is a decline of 0.2 percentage points in the regional score based on the constant sample of countries. At the current rate of progress, Europe is projected to attain gender parity in 67 years. – Just behind Europe, North America ranks second, having closed 75% of the gap, which is 1.9 percentage points lower than the previous edition. While Canada has registered a 0.2 percentage-point decline in the overall parity score since the last edition, the United States has seen a reduction of 2.1 percentage points. At the current rate of progress, 95 years will be needed to close the gender gap for the region. – With incremental progress towards gender parity since 2017, Latin America and the Caribbean has bridged 74.3% of its overall gender gap, a 1.7 percentage-point increase in overall gender parity since last year. After Europe and North America, the region has the third-highest level of parity. Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Jamaica register the highest parity scores in this region and Belize, Paraguay and Guatemala the lowest. At the current rate of progress, Latin America and the Caribbean will take 53 years to attain full gender parity.

Still less than 50% parity in the top-10 skills set to grow.

A persistent digital divide means women don’t have the same access to online learning that would enable them to upskill and future-proof their working lives. The report says that even when they do use these platforms, there are gender gaps in skilling. For enrolment in skills such as technological literacy (43.7% parity) and AI and big data (33.7%), which are among the top-10 skills projected to grow, there is less than 50% parity and “progress has been sluggish”.

Achieving parity in earnings and senior roles is crucial to closing the gender gap overall, the report’s authors stress: “Increasing women’s economic participation and achieving gender parity in leadership, in both business and government, are two key levers for addressing broader gender gaps in households, societies and economies.”

And collaboration will be key, the Forum adds: “Collective, coordinated and bold action by private- and public-sector leaders will be instrumental in accelerating progress towards gender parity and igniting renewed growth and greater resilience.”

While more women are taking up STEM jobs, retention rates have significantly dropped.

Very slow progress on women accessing senior leadership positions.

In many industries, women are still experiencing barriers to senior positions. 

Labour force participation remains well below 2009 peak.

Post-pandemic, women have been returning to the labour market at a slightly higher rate than men, nudging up the participation rate to 64% from a low of 63% last year. That said, parity is still at the second-lowest point since the first edition of the index in 2006 and significantly below its 2009 peak of 69%.

International Equal Pay Day represents longstanding efforts towards the achievement of equal pay for work of equal value and falling during the United Nations General Assembly week in New York, the day is a reminder that "Mainstreaming of a gender perspective is crucial in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development."

International Equal Pay Day builds on the UN's commitment to discrimination against women and girls around equal pay for work of equal value.

The 2023 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap report showed that women’s economic participation had regressed, rather than recovered since the pandemic.

It will take 131 years to reach full parity.

A growing number of actors have recognized the importance and urgency of taking action.

“Women’s economic participation has regressed rather than recovered” since the pandemic, is how Saadia Zahidi Managing Director at the World Economic Forum summed up the findings of the 2023 Global Gender Gap Report.

"Achieving equal pay is an important milestone for human rights and gender equality. It takes the effort of the entire world community and more work remains to be done", according to the UN.

The Forum's Global Gender Gap Index provides vital benchmarks for measuring progress on the goals of achieving "decent work and economic growth by seeking full and productive employment... for all women and men".

The data measures the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key pillars: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival and Political Empowerment. It was launched in 2006, making it the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing the gender gap.

Progress since then has been slow and, at the current rate, it will take 131 years to reach full parity. The global gender gap score in 2023 for all 146 countries surveyed is 68.4% closed – a 0.3-point improvement on last year.

Women’s economic opportunities remain a particular concern. Women’s participation in the labour market has slipped in recent years, and other markers of progress maintain big gaps between women and men.

“Recent years have seen major setbacks and the state of gender parity still varies widely by company, industry and economy. Yet, a growing number of actors have recognized the importance and urgency of taking action, and evidence on effective gender parity initiatives is solidifying,’’ the report says.

To mark UN International Equal Pay Day, 18 September, the ITUC is celebrating success stories from trade unions around the world that have campaigned to tackle the gender pay gap.

The briefing, Trade union action to promote equal pay for work of equal value, includes case studies from Chile, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Mauritius, New Zealand, Peru and the UK where unions have used social dialogue, campaigning and collective bargaining to win positive legislation, workplace policies and collective agreements.

On Equal Pay Day 2023, the ITUC Acting General Secretary, Luc Triangle, will be speaking at a high-level event of the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC): “The ITUC has been a member of EPIC since its founding by the UN General Assembly in September 2017. In that time a lot has been achieved, but progress is stalling.

“The main objective is to accelerate the pace of closing the gender pay gap to achieve equal pay for work of equal value by 2030 – a target of Sustainable Development Goal 8. This is central to the New Social Contract that demands fair wages, including minimum living wages, good quality, climate-friendly jobs and equality and inclusion for all.

“That is why we’re not just calling for 575 million new jobs. These jobs must be decent jobs, and one billion informal jobs, where women are overrepresented, must be formalised.

“A huge step towards this would by investing much more in care, as our report shows. The ILO estimates that investing in universal childcare and long-term care along would create 280 million jobs by 2030, it would boost the employment rate of women by 78%, and 84% of these jobs would be formal.

Closing the gender pay gap is key to achieving social justice for working women, as well as economic growth for the nation as a whole.

Applaud International Equal Pay Day on 18 September – a day which encourages employers across the globe to offer equal pay across genders for work of equal value.