Informal EPSCO meeting focusses on boosting women’s labour market participation
At the Informal Meeting of the EU Ministers of Employment and Social Policy (EPSCO), Heinz Koller, ILO Assistant Director-General, described the gender gaps in the labour market.
10 April 2019
Heinz Koller, ILO Assistant Director-General and Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, addressed the Informal Meeting of the EU Ministers of Employment and Social Policy (EPSCO).
The meeting was chaired by the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, and focussed on stimulating women’s participation to the labour market, by encouraging and supporting them in atypical forms of work.
Mr Koller discussed some of the main findings of the ILO report entitled “A Quantum leap for gender equality”.
The average gender pay gap in the EU stands at around 16 per cent, but there are large differences between the Member States. In 2017, the gender pay gap stood at 3.5 per cent in Romania, whereas it was at 25.6 per cent in Estonia. “We know that for a similar or even higher level of education, women are still very likely to earn less than their male counterparts,” said Mr Koller.
According to the report, women with young children under the age of five are less likely to be employed, than women without children of that age. Mothers also experience a motherhood wage penalty that compounds across their working life.
Unpaid care work is the main reason why women are outside the labour force. Traditionally, women have been portrayed as the ‘caregivers’, and society and labour markets continue to function largely on this assumption, but there is a lack of recognition and undervaluation of care work.
“Women are still underrepresented at the top, a situation that has changed very little in the last 30 years,” said Mr Koller. Women are also under-represented in trade unions and employers’ organizations. Available data for 2018 show that female membership in national social dialogue institutions only ranged from 20 to 35 per cent.
Mr Koller welcomed the support of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU to female labour force participation and women in leadership positions.
The meeting was chaired by the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, and focussed on stimulating women’s participation to the labour market, by encouraging and supporting them in atypical forms of work.
Mr Koller discussed some of the main findings of the ILO report entitled “A Quantum leap for gender equality”.
The average gender pay gap in the EU stands at around 16 per cent, but there are large differences between the Member States. In 2017, the gender pay gap stood at 3.5 per cent in Romania, whereas it was at 25.6 per cent in Estonia. “We know that for a similar or even higher level of education, women are still very likely to earn less than their male counterparts,” said Mr Koller.
According to the report, women with young children under the age of five are less likely to be employed, than women without children of that age. Mothers also experience a motherhood wage penalty that compounds across their working life.
Unpaid care work is the main reason why women are outside the labour force. Traditionally, women have been portrayed as the ‘caregivers’, and society and labour markets continue to function largely on this assumption, but there is a lack of recognition and undervaluation of care work.
“Women are still underrepresented at the top, a situation that has changed very little in the last 30 years,” said Mr Koller. Women are also under-represented in trade unions and employers’ organizations. Available data for 2018 show that female membership in national social dialogue institutions only ranged from 20 to 35 per cent.
Mr Koller welcomed the support of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU to female labour force participation and women in leadership positions.