International Equal Pay Day

Equal pay matters because it is a glaring injustice and subjects millions of women and families to lives of entrenched poverty and opportunity gaps What should be done? As governments shape policies to address the fallout from the global COVID-19 crisis , it is urgent that we put female workers on equal footing as male workers. Women make up the majority of workers on the front lines of the pandemic. They’re providing essential health and care services and therefore face a host of additional risks and stresses. Furthermore, 305 million full-time jobs have been lost since the start of the pandemic, and, unlike many previous economic crises where job loss has often been greatest in male-dominated industries, this crisis is hitting women’s work at least as hard as men’s, if not more. As more women face economic hardships because of COVID-19, the fight for equal pay takes on a new sense of urgency because those who earn the least are most damaged by income discrepancy. In the United State...

Workers around the world look forward to payday. A paycheck may bring a sense of relief, satisfaction, or joy, but it can also represent an injustice— an expression of persistent inequalities between men and women in the workplace . Globally, the gender pay gap stands at 16% , meaning women workers earn an average of 84% of what men earn . For women of colour, immigrant women, and women with children, the difference is even greater. These discrepancies in pay add up and have real, daily negative consequences for women and their families. The adverse impacts are exacerbated even more by crises. It is estimated that the widespread effects of COVID-19 could push 96 million people into extreme poverty by 2021, bringing the total number of women and girls living on USD 1.90 per day to 435 million On the first International Equal Pay Day, 18 September, take a closer look at the gender pay gap and what can be done to close it.