Gender Pay Gap Must Be Addressed on Political Level, Says Official
With women making 30 percent less than men, Estonia's gender equality commissioner Mari-Liis Sepper said on March 5 - the first EU Equal Pay Day - that the problem that must be addressed at the policy planning level.
According to the European Commission, this is high - the EC data pegs the gap at only five percent in Italy, for instance. However, the gap is a sizable 17.5 percent on average in the EU.
Sepper says measures should be developed at the political level to prevent gender segregation on the job market.
She also said that there should be state measures to change the fact that pay is less for certain jobs that are actually no less important for the society.
Sepper said that latest surveys show surprising trends - discrimination may be greater than thought, even though there are no data in this area. "The latest salary gap study from 2010 shows that job market segregation and the fact that men and women do different jobs may not be the greatest cause of the wage gap," she said.
Kristopher Rikken