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)

AuthorRenga, Simonetta
Pages24-37
24
4 Equal pay and equal treatment at work (Article 157 of the Treaty on the
Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Recast D irective 2006/54)
4.1 General (legal) context
4.1.1 Surveys on the gender pay gap and the difficulties of realising to equal pay
In 2018, a survey on the differences in pay was released by ISTAT (the National Institute
for Statistic s), on data from 2014-2016.17 The report shows that wome n’s gross pay is
oriented towards low levels: in 2016, 59 % of women earned an hourly pay lower than the
national average (as opposed to 44 % of men). In 2016, only 17.8 % of wom en earned
over EUR 15 per hour (against 26.2 % of men ), while 11.5 % of women earned less than
EUR 8 per h our (against 8.9 % of men). In the new contacts st ipulated in 2016, hourly
pay tends to be lower for men and women (-18.4 %) compared to the past; men’s hourly
pay has decreased more than that of women (-21.5 % against -14.6 % for women).
Surveys led by Valore D, an enterprise association (166 enterprises representing 1.5
million employees), show the following figures: the gender pay gap is 17.9 %; one year
after graduation, women earn 17.3 % less than men in the same job positions; women in
managerial positions earn 15 % less than men; women in administrative boards earn
69.8 % less than men; and women’s average pensions are 28.6 % less than men ’s.18 In
2017, Valore D prepared a manifesto for employers on the issue of sustainability, which is
inspired by the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) indicators for social budgets.19 The
manifesto aims to promote: a growing attention to women in access to jobs; flexibility at
work in order to improve reconciliation between work and private life for women;
assistance to w omen during maternity in order to make smoother the period of absence
from work and the return to work for both the women and the firm; incentives for men to
take an active part in their role as fathers and to take advantage of the social benefits
provided for that purpose; in creasing the quota of women in high level job positions;
instruments to monitor the presence of women in the labour force of the firm; and
professional training for management on gender diversity.20
In 2018, Job Pricing (a labour market research body) issued a report on the gender pay
gap.21 According to its data, the pay gap between men and women is 10 .4 %, although it
has decreased since 2016. The percentage of women in high responsibility jobs is
increasing but very slowly: from 2007 to 2017, the number of women managers increased
by 26 % to 31 %. In 79 % of the cases analysed by Job Pricing (350 000 private sector
employees) men earn more than women in the same job positions.
Eurostat 2016 records a gender pay gap in Italy of 5.3 % (the average gender pay gap in
the EU is 16.2 %). Eurostat 2014 shows that the gender overall earnings gap in Italy
stands at 43.7 % (the average gender overall earnings gap in the EU is 39.6 %). The
gender overall earnings gap is the difference between the average annual earning s of
women and men. It takes into account three types of disa dvantages that women face:
lower hourly earnings; working fewer hours in paid jobs; lower employment rates (for
example when interrupting a career to take care of children or relatives).22 According to
Eurostat, the main factors of the gender pay gap are: management and supervisory
positions are overwhelmingly held by men; women take charge of important unpaid tasks,
such as household work and caring for children or relatives on a far larger scale than men
do; women tend to spend periods out of the labour market more often than men; in some
17 https://www.istat.it/it/files//2018/12/Report-Differenziali-retributivi.pdf.
18 https://nopaygap.valored.it/#service-1-1.
19 https://valored.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Manifesto_Valore_D-2.pdf.
20 https://valored.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Manifesto_Valore_D-2.pdf.
21 https://winningwomeninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Gender_Gap_Report_2018.pdf.
22
https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/aid_development_cooperation_fundamental_rights/equalpayday_f
actsheets_2018_country_files_italy_en.pdf.

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