Annexes to COM(2017)678 - EU Action Plan 2017-2019 Tackling the gender pay gap

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dossier COM(2017)678 - EU Action Plan 2017-2019 Tackling the gender pay gap.
document COM(2017)678 EN
date November 20, 2017
Annex 48 of the implementation Report on Directive 2006/54/EC 49 which provides an overview of landmark case-law

·prepare and widely disseminate in 2018 an updated Guide on best practices reflecting the latest actions taken by Member States to ensure the application of equal pay on the ground 50 .


Action 8: enhancing partnerships to tackle the gender pay gap

The Commission will continue to engage with key players to exchange good practices, provide funding and address the consequences of the gender pay gap through the European Semester process.

The Commission supports Member States, companies, civil society and social partners through funding and actions on the exchange of good practices. Recent examples include:

·the EU Diversity Charters Platform specific meeting on gender mainstreaming (June 2016);

·an EU seminar with cross-industry partners and sector social partners (November 2016); and

·a mutual learning seminar organised to discuss the Belgium's good practice in promoting gender neutral job classification (October 2016).

The Commission also supports Member States' efforts to tackle the gender pay gap through the European Semester process, eventually by recommending to a Member State to address this specific issue or some of its root causes, such as a lack of investment in childcare or fiscal disincentives preventing second earners – mainly women - to work or to work more.

In 2017, the gender pay gap was addressed in the Country Reports of nine Member States 51 . In May 2017, the Commission issued Country Specific Recommendations (CSRs) focusing on investment in childcare facilities and fiscal disincentives and on other measures to address the gender pay gap 52 .

The Commission will in particular:

·organise mutual learning seminars for governmental representatives on the gender pay, earnings, and pensions gap and its root causes. The focus will be on concrete tools and legal instruments and on the challenges involved in implementing them;

·support mutual learning and capacity-building among social partners, companies and other stakeholders, to tackle the gender pay gap;

·provide financial support to Member States willing to reduce the gender pay gap, through restricted calls for proposals under the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC) 2014-2020; and

·continue to follow-up on the gender pay gap in the context of the European Semester and engage in dialogue with respective Member States on measures needed to eradicate it.

(1) Magnitude and Impact Factors of the Gender Pay Gap in EU Countries In particular, data shows that the gender pay gap may increase as more women are entering in the labour market. See Boll, C.; Leppin, J.; Rossen, A.; Wolf, A. (2016), ", Report prepared for and financed by the European Commission – Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers. Moreover, labour market developments have been in general unfavourable to low-wage workers. Women have therefore been "swimming upstream" unfavourable trends. See Blau F and Kahn L (1997), "Swimming Upstream: Trends in the Gender Wage Differential in the 1980s", Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 15, No. 1, Part 1 (Jan., 1997), pp. 1-42
(2) See Burchell B., Hardy V., Rubery J. and Smith M. (2015) , A new method to understand labour market segregation, Report prepared for and financed by the European Commission – Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers: only 18% of women and 15% of men work in mixed occupations (60-40% men & women).
(3) Boll et al. (2016): segregation in sectors contributes to widen the gender pay gap in all countries. The effect of segregation in occupation is more heterogeneous across countries: in a number of countries; segregation in occupation may actually protect women.
(4) See Index of occupational and sector segregation published every year in the European Commission's report on equality between women and men.
(5) See Boll et al. (2016):
(6) EC (2015) An ever closer union among the peoples of Europe? Rising inequalities in the EU and their social, economic and political impacts. Outcomes of EU-funded research. DG RTD, Brussels, pp. 54-55.
(7) Goldin C. (2014), "A Grand Gender Convergence: Its Last Chapter.", American Economic Review, 104 (4) :1091-1119.
(8) Eurobarometer 465.
(9) For instance, the introduction of a minimum wage in Germany is estimated to reduce the gender pay gap by 2.5 percentage points. Women should also benefit from the recent minimum wages' increase in some of the countries with the highest gender pay gap (Czech Republic, Slovakia and the UK).
(10) It accounts for a third of earnings inequalities between women and men during working lives. See 2017 Commission's report on equality between women and men and Eurostat: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Gender_statistics
(11) http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/documents/151203_strategic_engagement_en.pdf Closing the gender gap is one of the objectives of the Commission's Strategic engagement for gender equality (2016-2019)  
(12) Report on the application of Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation (recast), COM(2013) 861 final -- http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/gender_pay_gap/com-2013-861-final_en.pdf
(13) Commission Recommendation of 7 March 2014 on strengthening the principle of equal pay between men and women through transparency, COM(2014) 1405 final -- http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/files/gender_pay_gap/c_2014_1405_en.pdf
(14) These include: (i) allowing employees to request information on pay levels, broken down by gender, for categories of employees doing the same work or work of equal value; (ii) regular reporting by employers on wage structures by category of employee or position, broken down by gender (limited to large and medium companies); (iii) pay audits in large companies; and (iv) a discussion of equal pay issues at the appropriate level in collective bargaining
(15) COM/2017/671
(16) The Gender Equality Recast Directive obliges Member States to put in place penalties which shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. However, sanctions provided for in the national laws of the Member States vary widely which leads to an unequal enforcement of the rights granted under the Directive
(17) In Case C-318/13, Proceedings brought by X, 3 September 2014, the CJEU held that differentiated benefits on the basis of gender-specific actuarial data are inadmissible in statutory social security pensions under Directive 79/7/EEC.
(18) In Case C-236/09, Test Achats, 1 March 2011, the CJEU annulled Article 5(2) of Directive 2004/113/EC which permitted the use of sex-based actuarial factors in insurance contracts. The ruling obliged Member States to make unisex premiums and benefits mandatory by 21 December 2012.
(19) As announced in its report on the evaluation of the 2014 Recommendation.
(20) Women only represent 10% of the workforce in the construction sector, 22% in the transport sector and 30% in manufacturing (compared to 46% of the whole economy)
(21) See EIGE study on reducing the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-- http://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/policy-areas/economic-and-financial-affairs/economic-benefits-gender-equality/stem
(22) The OECD is responsible for the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) which is a triennial survey of 15-year-old students around the world. Survey from 2015.
(23) Action grants to support transnational projects to promote good practices on gender roles and to overcome gender stereotypes in education, training and in the workplace - JUST/2015/RGEN/AG/ROLE. See http://ec.europa.eu/justice/grants1/calls/2015_action_grants/just_2015_rgen_ag_role_en.htm
(24) The EU-level platform of Diversity Charters was set up in 2010 and is funded by the European Commission. The platform now consists of 18 Diversity Charters from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/diversity/charters/index_en.htm See
(25)

The Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition brings together Member States, companies, social partners, non-profit organisations and education providers, who take action to tackle the lack of digital skills in Europe .

(26) As from December 2017, stakeholders from all transport sectors will be able to make their concrete actions in favour of women's employment visible and to exchange good practices.
(27) Strengthening teaching in Europe, New evidence from teachers compiled by Eurydice and CRELL, June 2015 http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/repository/education/library/policy/teaching-profession-practices_en.pdf
(28) Supporting teachers and school leaders for excellent teaching and learning, part of the COM Communication on School Development and excellent teaching for a great start in life (COM(2017) 248).
(29) http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/index_en.php
(30) For example, data from October 2016 show that women still account for less than one in four (23.9%) board members in the largest publicly listed companies registered in EU Member States. In local politics, in 2015, women accounted for only just over one in seven (15.1%) mayors or other council leaders (2017 Report on equality between men and women).
(31) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52017XC0705(01)  
(32)

Between 2014 and 2016, EUR 5 million were allocated to 23 projects on this topic.

(33) Eurostat, Structure of Earnings Survey
(34) Reduced earnings, higher concentration in part-time work and career gaps linked to caring responsibilities make many women economically more dependent on their partners or the State and contribute substantially to the gender pay gap and gender pension gap. This results in a higher risk of exposure to poverty and social exclusion for women, with negative impacts also extending to their children and families (see the Commission Communication COM(2017)252 final An initiative to support work-life balance for working parents and carers).
(35) Oláh S., Hobson B, and L. Carlson (2017) "Changing families and sustainable societies: Policy contexts and diversity over the life course and across generations" FP7 Project FamiliesAndSocieties (GA 320116).
(36) Proposal for a directive on work-life balance for parents and carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU, COM(2017) 253 final
(37) COM(2017) 252
(38) Recent research confirms that sectoral gender segregation on the labour market accounts for a significant proportion of the gender pay gap in all EU countries: women are entering relatively low-paid sectors. Sectoral segregation has evolved very slowly (2017 Report on equality between women and men in the EU).
(39) A new skill agenda for Europe, working together to strengthen human capital, employability and competitiveness, COM(2016) 381 final.
(40) Over the last 10 years, European cooperation and tools have been developed to foster transparency in skills: i) the European Qualifications Framework; ii) a multilingual classification of European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO); iii) a Council Recommendation on the validation of non-formal and informal learning.
(41) Key stakeholders are national qualifications authorities, information, advice and guidance services, and authorities responsible for the validation of non-formal and informal learning.
(42) In its implementation Report on Directive 2006/54/EC (COM(2013) 861 final, 6.12.2013) the Commission provides in its annex a guide on gender neutral job evaluation and classification systems (SWD(2013) 512 final, 6.12.2013).
(43) See Bettio F. and Ticci E. (2017), Violence against women and economic independence.
(44) Such as the Report on the situation of pay transparency in Europe published in May 2017 by the European network of legal experts in the field of gender equality and the study on Magnitude and impact factors of the gender pay gap in EU countries prepared by the Directorate General for Justice;
(45) The gender pay gap can be explained by a number of factors: segregation, differences in school attainment, differences in experience, etc. The remaining "unexplained" part of the gender pay gap is called the "adjusted" gender pay gap. This decomposition of the gender pay gap into an adjusted and unadjusted part can provide further insights for policy-makers.
(46) Social scoreboard is available at:https://composite-indicators.jrc.ec.europa.eu/social-scoreboard/#
(47) See Krueger and Katz (2016), "The Rise and Nature of Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States, 1995-2015". American data shows "a notable rise in the likelihood of working in an alternative work arrangement for women. From 2005 to 2015, the percentage of women who were employed in an alternative work arrangement more than doubled, rising from 8.3 percent to 17.0 percent. The percentage increased by a more modest amount for men, from 11.6 percent to 14.7 percent". See also "The situation of workers in the collaborative economy", In-depth-analysis, European Parliament for EU data
(48) SWD(2013) 512 final, 6.12.2013.
(49) COM(2013) 861 final, 6.12.2013.
(50) Deriving from SWD(2013) 512 final, 6.12.2013.
(51) DE, EE, IE, ES, IT, AT, PL, RO, SK.
(52) Notably in EE.