Equal Pay campaigns
2020 - Gender Pay Gap - not a game
The Gender Pay Gap in the European Union is still 16% on average.
This means that, in order to earn what a man earns in one year, a woman has to work a full year plus 58 days - until 27 February of the following year.
This year, on 27 February, PES Women is mobilising for Equal Pay with the campaign "Gender Pay Gap - not a game".
- The cards are stacked against women - higher paid jobs are dominated by men, and women’s pay is negatively affected by unequally shared care responsibilities and parental leave. We need gender-sensitive labour market policies.
- Women are being dealt a bad hand - on average in the EU, the gender pay gap is 16% and the gender pension gap is 30%. In some countries, it is even higher. Women deserve more.
- It’s time to put all the cards on the table - we need EU legislation on pay transparency to shine a light on pay discrimination. The EU must introduce criteria for assessing work of equal value, gender pay gap audits and sanctions for non-compliance.
- It’s time to raise the stakes on gender equality - the EU and national governments must introduce concrete and binding measures to eliminate the gender pay gap by 2030.
Materials to download
Visuals for social media
Whilst the average pay gap between men and women is 16% in the EU, across occupations the figures vary widely.
The campaign visuals below show jobs where the pay gap is particularly large - airline pilots, those working in food production, healthcare professionals, teachers and welders/metal workers are among the professions where women earn significantly less than their male counterparts.
- Airline pilot - BG, DE, DK, EE, EL, EN, ES, FI, Flemish, FR, HR, HU, IS, IT, LV, NL, NO, PL, PT, SE, SI
- Food processing - BG, DE, DK, EE, EL, EN, ES, FI, Flemish, FR, HR, HU, IS, IT, LV, NL, NO, PL, PT, SE, SI
- Healthcare professional - BG, DE, DK, EE, EL, EN, ES, FI, Flemish, FR, HR, HU, IS, IT, LV, NO, NL, PL, PT, SE, SI
- Teacher - BG, DE, DK, EE, EL, EN, ES, FI, Flemish, FR, HR, HU, IS, IT, LV, NO, NL, PL, PT, SE, SI
- Welder/metalworker - BG, DE, DK, EE, EL, EN, ES, FI, Flemish, FR, HR, HU, IS, IT, LV, NO, NL, PL, PT, SE, SI
Printable files
Campaign poster
A poster which features a face-cutout has been produced for selfies and other actions. You can download the print file using the link below.
Promotional materials
Limited-edition playing cards
A limited-edition deck of campaign playing cards will be available around 8 March.
Kings, queens and jacks in the specially designed set depict male and female workers in jobs with some of the largest gender pay gaps in Europe.
2019 - What women really want is Equal Pay
In order to raise awareness to the Gender Pay Gap, on Equal Pay Day 2019 (27 February), PES Women launched a campaign video called "What women really want is Equal Pay".
2018 - Equal Pay for Equal Pensions
Women’s pensions are 39% lower than men’s in Europe. In order to prevent this pension gap from keeping happening, we need to act now and close the gender pay gap.
On the European level, we call for:
- a common target to be established in order to reduce the gender pay gap by 2 percentage points per year and per Member State for all age groups
- monitoring the reduction of the gender pay gap through audits at EU level
- clear and dissuasive sanctions in the European legislation in case of non-fulfilment of the objectives
Check the campaign video
Materials to download
Facebook timeline pictures
Facebook timeline pictures
Print files
Poster
Postcard
- Bulgarian
- Croatian
- Dutch (Belgium)
- Dutch (The Netherlands)
- English
- Estonian
- Finnish
- French
- French/Dutch
- German
- Greek
- Hungarian
- Italian
- Latvian
- Lithuanian
- Polish
- Portuguese
2017 - Start sooner to get equal pay later
The PES Women campaign for Equal Pay was originally launched in 2013 and is the main feature of 2017. The campaign raises awareness about the 16.2% gender pay gap that exists at European level.
While in 2013 it focused on the pension gap between men and women, this year's theme is "Start sooner to get equal pay later", denouncing the fact that women would have to work ten years longer – or start working ten years earlier – to match the lifetime earnings of men.
This year's is a joint campaign with Zij-Kant and ABVV.
In order to shut the gender pay gap, PES Women calls for:
- a common target to be established in order to reduce the Gender Pay Gap by 2% per year and per Member State for all age groups
- monitoring the reduction of the gender pay gap through audits at European level
- clear and dissuasive sanctions in the European legislation in case of non-fulfilment of the objectives
Campaign material 2017
2013 - Equal pay for equal work
Campaign material 2013
- Postcards
- Banners
