Vegas
07-19-2007, 06:01 PM
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070718/tbs-uk-eu-gender-4210405.html
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Men must take on more household chores for their pay differential over women to disappear, the European Union's employment chief said on Wednesday in an appeal to all males in the bloc.
The European Commission said in a report that women in the 27-nation EU earned 15 percent less than men, measured by gross hourly wages, against 17 percent in 1995, showing little progress on indirect sexual discrimination in the job market.
"There is no sign of any sustainable improvement and this is quite simply unacceptable," Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said, adding a pay gap between men and women existed even in the EU's executive Commission.
He said men, regardless of whether they worked full or part-time, contributed seven hours a week of unpaid household work.
Women, on the other hand, contributed 35 hours a week if they also had a part-time job and 24 hours a week if employed full-time elsewhere. This made it impossible for them to devote as much time as men to their careers, Spidla said.
"So this is an appeal to men: It is not possible to reduce the pay gap if we do not make a greater contribution at home," he told a news conference.
"I had my own experience of unpaid work at home when my wife was ill. It's simply a problem of lack of time. You can't be properly trained, you can't learn a language, you can't say to your employer 'I will come in early tomorrow', or 'I'll stay on a bit longer'," Spidla said.
"I do know just how unjust that (work) is, because no account is taken of it."
PENALISED BY PREGNANCY
Spidla said women were penalised by salary systems rewarding length of employment in most EU countries, because women had to take time off to have children. The shorter working time reduced their wages and eventually their pensions.
"It is unacceptable for a woman who takes eight months off during her pregnancy twice between the age of 20 and 30, for this to have an effect on her pay 25 years after the event and even for this to affect her pension," he said.
Having the unpaid job at home often forced women to seek lower-paid or part-time work, making certain sectors dominated by female employees and further reducing their wages.
"As soon as there is a large number of women in a sector the pay goes down," Spidla said, citing the civil service, education, health, social work, clerical jobs and sales as examples.
"Very often women choose these less paid professions because they have to do a great deal of unpaid work, so the household can work, so that the world will keep turning," he said.
"Very often ... they have no option, it's not a matter of free choice at all. Our society all too often is such that women are obliged to take certain decisions and we don't want that to continue," he said.
Women are paid less even though they are better educated on average -- almost 60 percent of university graduates are female.
A "glass ceiling" prevents women from getting top jobs even if they are qualified and there are fewer of them in the most valued fields of technology, mathematics, engineering and science, the Commission report said.
To eliminate the gap, the Commission will push for equal pay to be a criterion for winning public contracts and ask EU states to set objectives and deadlines for erasing the shortfall.
The EU executive will also next year review EU laws to see whether they adequately tackle the causes of pay differences.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Men must take on more household chores for their pay differential over women to disappear, the European Union's employment chief said on Wednesday in an appeal to all males in the bloc.
The European Commission said in a report that women in the 27-nation EU earned 15 percent less than men, measured by gross hourly wages, against 17 percent in 1995, showing little progress on indirect sexual discrimination in the job market.
"There is no sign of any sustainable improvement and this is quite simply unacceptable," Employment Commissioner Vladimir Spidla said, adding a pay gap between men and women existed even in the EU's executive Commission.
He said men, regardless of whether they worked full or part-time, contributed seven hours a week of unpaid household work.
Women, on the other hand, contributed 35 hours a week if they also had a part-time job and 24 hours a week if employed full-time elsewhere. This made it impossible for them to devote as much time as men to their careers, Spidla said.
"So this is an appeal to men: It is not possible to reduce the pay gap if we do not make a greater contribution at home," he told a news conference.
"I had my own experience of unpaid work at home when my wife was ill. It's simply a problem of lack of time. You can't be properly trained, you can't learn a language, you can't say to your employer 'I will come in early tomorrow', or 'I'll stay on a bit longer'," Spidla said.
"I do know just how unjust that (work) is, because no account is taken of it."
PENALISED BY PREGNANCY
Spidla said women were penalised by salary systems rewarding length of employment in most EU countries, because women had to take time off to have children. The shorter working time reduced their wages and eventually their pensions.
"It is unacceptable for a woman who takes eight months off during her pregnancy twice between the age of 20 and 30, for this to have an effect on her pay 25 years after the event and even for this to affect her pension," he said.
Having the unpaid job at home often forced women to seek lower-paid or part-time work, making certain sectors dominated by female employees and further reducing their wages.
"As soon as there is a large number of women in a sector the pay goes down," Spidla said, citing the civil service, education, health, social work, clerical jobs and sales as examples.
"Very often women choose these less paid professions because they have to do a great deal of unpaid work, so the household can work, so that the world will keep turning," he said.
"Very often ... they have no option, it's not a matter of free choice at all. Our society all too often is such that women are obliged to take certain decisions and we don't want that to continue," he said.
Women are paid less even though they are better educated on average -- almost 60 percent of university graduates are female.
A "glass ceiling" prevents women from getting top jobs even if they are qualified and there are fewer of them in the most valued fields of technology, mathematics, engineering and science, the Commission report said.
To eliminate the gap, the Commission will push for equal pay to be a criterion for winning public contracts and ask EU states to set objectives and deadlines for erasing the shortfall.
The EU executive will also next year review EU laws to see whether they adequately tackle the causes of pay differences.