Pay transparency can play a crucial role in ensuring substantial progress in addressing the gender pay gap. In a ongoing campaign, many Finnish Members of the European Parliament, have showed their support for equal pay.

As the Gender Pay Transparency Directive progresses in the European Parliament, the Finnish trade union movement wants to ensure that the Directive becomes a game-changer for women workers.

Members of the European Parliament have the power to remove some remaining hurdles in women workers’ way towards equal pay, instead of building higher ones. ETUC has called on Members of the European Parliament to improve the Directive regarding the right of workers to be represented by their union and to collectively bargain for equal pay.

Among Finnish MEP’s, the pledge has been signed by MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen (EPP), Shadow rapporteur of the Gender Pay Transparency Directive in the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM), MEP Alviina Alametsä (Greens / EFA) as well as MEP Eero Heinäluoma (S&D).

The latest new signatories are MEP Miapetra Kumpula-Natri (S&D) (in the picture above) and MEP Silvia Modig (GUE / NGL).

The proposal for a Gender Pay Transparency Directive is a real chance to significantly advance the fight for equal pay and to put a stop to undervaluation of work predominantly carried out by women. Workers should also be able to discuss their pay and by that, pay secrecy clauses banned.

There is a need to guarantee that unions can bargain to put end to pay discrimination and the undervaluation of female-dominated jobs.

The Gender Pay Transparency Directive is a unique chance to finally draw the right lessons from the COVID pandemic and to empower women workers and their unions. The fight for equal pay remains an uphill battle and it is certainly one that cannot be won alone.

If you are a Member of the European Parliament, please sign the pledge!

Discrimination is one of the reasons women in the EU earn 16% less than men on average. Pay transparency means that every worker knows how much they and their co-workers, managers and CEOs make. It also means that gender biases and discrimination, even if unconscious, are stripped away as everyone can see their effects laid out numerically in the cold light of day. Read more here.