Equal pay and equal treatment at work (Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Recast Directive 2006/54)

• Author: Kadriye Bakirci
• Pages: 32-44

32

4Equal pay and equal treatment at work (Article 157 ofthe Treaty onthe

Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Recast Directive 2006/54)

4.1General (legal) context

4.1.1Surveys on the gender pay gap and the difficulties ofrealising equal pay

Equal pay isessential to achieving full gender equality in the world ofwork and a fairer,

more inclusive world ingeneral. Target 8.5 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals calls

for equal pay for work of equal value by2030.104

There is no national survey on the gender pay gap in Turkey. However the ILO’s2018

report, Global Wage Report 2018/19: What lies behind gender pay gaps105 and the 2019

ILO report, A quantum leap for gender equality: for a better future of work for all106 cover

Turkey.

The ILO’sGlobal Wage Reportis based onananalysis of70 countries and 80 % ofwage

earners worldwide, comparing women and men in homogeneous subsets byeducation,

age, hours worked (full timevs part time) and public vs private sector using weighted

measures.

The study reveals that the global gender pay gap stood at18.8 %.The gap is 12 % in

Turkey. The gender pay gap remains a challenge for all countries to overcome.107

A 2017 ILO-Gallup global report108 shows the wide pay gap between working mothers and

working non-mothers It states that with a pay gap of 29.6 %, Turkey is the country with

the highest motherhood penalty among both upper-middle and lower-middle income

countries, and hosts the most disadvantageous conditions in this regard. Working mothers

pay the highest penalty byreceiving 30 % less in wages than non-mothers. Motherhood

also causes labour market interruption, and women’s permanent exit from labour

markets.109

Women’s participation inthe labour force is lower than men in all countries worldwide,

regardless of pay level orage group. Most disadvantaged are women inthe 25-35age

group, whose participation in the labour market generally goes down following first-time

motherhood in this period. Unfortunately, most women of the 25-35 age group who leave

the labour market for motherhood do not return.110

An infographic poster on‘Understanding the Gender Pay Gap,111 deriving from the ILO’s

Global Wage Report and Quantum Leap report, produced bythe ILO Office for Turkey,

states that women in paid employment are better educated than men and that the public

104UN, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld.

105 ILO (2018) Global Wage Report 2018/19: What lies behind gender pay gaps. International Labour

Organisation, Geneva. https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_650553/lang--en/index.htm.

106 ILO (2019) Quantum leap report. http://esitizberaberiz.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ILO-Report-A-

Quantum-leap-for-gender-equality.pdf.

107 ILO (2019) Quantum leap report.

108 ILO-Gallup Report (2017) Towards a better future for women and work: Voices of women and men,

International Labour Organization, Geneva.

https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_546256/lang--en/index.htm.

109 ILO (2019) Quantum leap report: ‘Recent studies identify a “motherhoodpenalty”as a source of gender

pay gaps. This indicator of pay gap between mothers and non-mothers reveals striking results when

compared tothe“fatherhoodpremium” indicating the pay gap between fathers and non-fathers’.

http://esitizberaberiz.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ILO-Report-A-Quantum-leap-for-gender-

equality.pdf.

110 ILO (2019) Quantum leap report.

111 Seehttp://esitizberaberiz.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Infographic-on-%E2%80%9CUnderstanding-

the-Pay-Gap%E2%80%99.pdf.