Belgium hosts Employment conference on labour market participation of women

BRUSSELS (ILO News) – The third National Employment Conference organized by the Belgian government focussed on women’s labour market participation. Whilst progress has been made in recent years, important gaps persist. The pay gap between men and women remains at an average of 20 percent worldwide. In the EU-27, women earn 13 per cent less than their male colleagues, whereas in Belgium, the gender pay gap stands at 8 per cent.

Globally, for every economically inactive man, there are two women. Four out of five jobs created in 2022 for women were informal, compared with two out of three for men. Young women are twice as likely as young men to be neither in employment, education or training.

“Despite considerable progress over the years, persistent challenges still stand in the way of the full and fair integration of women into the labour market, all over the world,” said Chidi King, Chief of the ILO’s Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Branch.

The allocation of care responsibilities and the organisation of care remain a major challenge for the equitable inclusion of women in the labour market. Women's unequal share of unpaid care work has an impact not only on their participation in the labour market, but also on the hours they work when employed, and consequently on their pay and income, their progression in the labour market and their pensions.

The ILO estimates that greater investment in the care economy could generate nearly 300 million jobs by 2035 and encourage gender equality. To promote this transformative investment, the ILO has developed tools - the ILO Global Care Policy Portal and the ILO Care Policy Investment Simulator.

Alongside other UN organisations, the ILO co-leads the care economy cluster of the UN Global Accelerator on Jobs and social protection for just transitions, which aims to support, by 2030, the creation of 400 million jobs and extend social protection to the 4 billion people currently left unprotected. King thanked Belgium for its generous contribution to the Global Accelerator, and for its strong commitment made at an event of the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) to mark International Equal Pay Day. Both side-events took place at the UN General Assembly in New York.

The ILO, in collaboration with the OECD and UN Women, co-leads EPIC, which helps governments, employers' and workers' organizations, the private sector and other stakeholders to take concrete action to reduce the gender pay gap.

At the side-event, Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Labour outlined the actions which the Belgian government will take, including the implementation of the EU Directive on Pay Transparency and the transposition of the EU Minimum Wage Directive by 2024. Belgium is committed to lead in reducing the gender pay gap in Europe and plans to highlight this issue during its Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2024.

“We sincerely hope that Belgium and the social partners will soon join EPIC,” she concluded.