16 March 2017
ILO, UN Women Campaign Against Gender Pay Gap
Photo by IISD/ENB | Kiara Worth
story highlights

The ILO and UN Women launched a high-profile campaign to close the gender pay gap.

UN Women reports that women are paid just 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, due both to women’s greater representation in lower-paid sectors, and to the wage differential between women and men in comparable roles.

14 March 2017: The International Labour Organization (ILO) and UN Women launched a high-profile campaign to close the gender pay gap. UN Women reports that women are paid just 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, for work of equal value.

The ‘Equal Pay Platform of Champions’ was launched on 14 March 2017, as the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) began its 61st session in New York, US. Actor Patricia Arquette and US soccer player Abby Wambach spoke at the launch of the Platform, which is part of a broader effort by the ILO and UN Women to promote women’s economic empowerment. The gender pay gap relates both to women’s greater representation in lower-paid sectors such as teaching and health care, as well as the wage differential between women and men in comparable roles.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women, said flagrant inequality must become a thing of the past, while Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General, noted that the quest for women’s economic empowerment will be lost or won in the world of work. The Equal Pay Platform is promoting awareness of good practices for eradicating gender inequality in wages, including: legislation and mechanisms for dispute resolution; measures to advance women’s leadership; wage transparency; and access to data on wages and other benefits disaggregated by gender, ethnicity, and migrant status.

UN Women is also running an advocacy campaign, #stoptherobbery, which is calling for equal pay and women’s economic empowerment as part of achieving full gender equality. [UN Press Release] [ILO Press Release] [#Stoptherobbery Website] [UN Women Webpage on Equal Pay] [CSW61]


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