On 28 February 2013, the European Commission marked the European Equal Pay Day.
The European Equal Pay Day is held annually and raises awareness of the fact that women have to work longer than men to earn the same. 16.2%: that’s the size of the gender pay gap, or the average difference between women and men’s hourly earnings across the EU, according to the latest figures released today by the Commission. To help tackle the pay gap, the Commission is highlighting a series of good practices by companies in Europe which have taken on the problem. It is the third time the Equal Pay Day takes place at European level, following its launch by the Commission on 5 March 2011 and the second day on 2 March 2012 .
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German media firm Axel Springer AG launched the “Chancen:gleich!” (Opportunities:Equal!) programme in 2010 with the objective of increasing the numbers of female managers to 30% of the company’s management within 5-8 years.
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Kleemann Hellas SA, a Greek lift producer, aims to increase the number of women in sales and technical support, breaking stereotypes and reducing gender segregation. The “Diversity and Gender Equality” project increased female presence in the sales department from 5% in 2004 to 30% in 2012.
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Lithuanian mobile communications company Omnitel’s project “Creating a family friendly work environment in the company” aims to make work-life balance part of the organisational culture by offering flexible working possibilities to their staff. This has increased the proportion of female managers.
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IBM Germany’s “German Women’s Leadership Council” seeks to encourage women to take up a career in the IT industry by providing personal and cyber mentoring to students in schools. It also offers mentoring to young colleagues pursuing a management or specialist career.
More information:
‘Tackling the gender pay gap in the European Union’ is a new brochure which explains the gender pay gap, its causes and the benefits of closing it. It also shows examples of national good practices to tackle the gender pay gap. The brochure is available in English but will be available in the 22 EU languages soon.
You can download it here
The gender pay gap website has been updated with the latest developments on equal pay issues. New statistical data and the new brochure are available there. To learn more visit http://ec.europa.eu/equalpay.
Linked to the European Equal Pay Day, a Business Forum will be organised on 21 March 2013 in Brussels. The Business Forum will be a platform of knowledge exchange for up to 150 EU companies of actions to foster gender equality. More information about the Business Forum can be found here