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

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4 Equal pay and equal treatment at work (Article 157 of the Treaty on the

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

4.1 General (legal) context

4.1.1 Surveys on the gender pay gap and the difficulties of realising equal pay

Equal pay is essential to achieving full gender equality in the world of work and a fairer,

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

for equal pay for work of equal value by 2030.104

There is no national survey on the gender pay gap in Turkey. However the ILO’s 2018

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’s Global Wage Report is based on an analysis of 70 countries and 80 % of wage

earners worldwide, comparing women and men in homogeneous subsets by education,

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

measures.

The study reveals that the global gender pay gap stood at 18.8 %. 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 by receiving 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 in the labour force is lower than men in all countries worldwide,

regardless of pay level or age group. Most disadvantaged are women in the 25-35 age

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 by the ILO Office for Turkey,

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

104 UN, 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 “motherhood penalty” as a source of gender

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

compared to the “fatherhood premium” 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 See http://esitizberaberiz.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Infographic-on-%E2%80%9CUnderstanding-

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