International Equal Pay Day

For the first time, gender equality ranks alongside healthcare and climate change as a top global concern . Gen Z and Millennials , the generations shaping our workplaces, our politics, and our online spaces, have sounded the alarm and put the spotlight on gender equality. But while n early a third of young people rank gender equality as urgent – 29% of Gen Z and 28% of Millennials – the majority (58%) says they don’t know how to support it. Here are three ways to start: at home, at work, and in digital spaces. These recommendations are based on Team Lewis Foundation’s latest data in support of HeForShe , the UN Women solidarity movement for gender equality.

Closing the gender pay gap requires a set of measures that push for decent work for all people. This includes measures that promote the formalization of the informal economy , bringing informal workers under the umbrella of legal and effective protection and empowering them to better defend their interests. Equal pay expert King says that, “One of the most effective and quickest ways to narrow gender pay gaps is through minimum living wages (or wage floors) and universal social protection. ” Because women are overrepresented in low paid work , minimum living wages and social protections would benefit them more dramatically. King also states that widespread adoption of proactive pay equity laws , which require employers to regularly examine compensation practices, assess gender pay gaps, and take action to eliminate them, would help bridge the gap. Transparency within companies in criteria and decisions regarding pay can also help prevent gender bias. Ensuring workers’ right t...

The gender pay gap is rooted in systemic inequalities. Women, particularly migrant women, are overrepresented in the informal sector around the globe. Look around you, street vendors, domestic workers, coffee shop staff, and subsistence farmers are often women. They are in informal jobs that often fall outside the domains of labour laws, trapping them in low-paying, unsafe working environments , without social benefits . These poor conditions for women workers perpetuate the gender pay gap. In addition to overrepresentation in vulnerable and informal employment, women do three times as much care and domestic work as men, globally. This includes household taskssuch as cooking, cleaning, fetching firewood and water, and taking care of children and the elderly. Although care work is the backbone of thriving families, communities, and economies, it remains undervalued and underrecognized. Try calculating your daily load with UN Women’s unpaid care calculator . The motherhood penalty is...