Promoting pay equity in Jordan

In Jordan, statistics show that the average monthly wage for women is 314 Jordan dinars (US$443), compared to 364 Jordan dinars (US$514) for men. Also significant is the fact that almost half of employed women in Jordan are professionals who earn 33 per cent less than their male counterparts. Since March 2010, the ILO has been working in Jordan in close collaboration with the Ministry of Labour (MoL) and the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW) to build a knowledge base on pay discrimination that enables decision makers to formulate evidence-based policies to promote pay equity. The ultimate goal of this project is to contribute to the the country’s development goal of increasing women’s participation in the labour market. The creation and launch of a tripartite plus National Steering Committee for Pay Equity (NSCPE) in July 2011 has been one of the most important achievements of the project. NSCPE’s mandate is to promote cooperation among its members in implementing a National Action Plan on Pay Equity and to coordinate activities aimed at achieving equal pay for work of equal value. The NSCPE is fully operational and has created two subcommittees: a legal subcommittee, which focuses on enhancing policies and legislation for equal pay and making recommendations regarding legislative amendments; and a research subcommittee, which focuses on conducting in-depth research on pay-based discrimination in the private education sector to inform policy and programmes. In the framework of this project, the ILO has provided technical support for pro-pay equity provisions in the National Employment Strategy and the National Women’s strategy for 2011 – 2015. It has also provided training to members of the NSCPE to improve their understanding of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and gender-neutral job evaluations methods.