News item | 14-11-2022 | 09:32
Women in the Netherlands earn on average 13 percent less per hour than male colleagues. This wage difference has only slowly narrowed in recent years, according to Statistics Netherlands’ ‘Monitor wage differences men and women, 2020’, published today. To discuss the broader inequality between men and women in the labor market, Minister Van Gennip of Social Affairs and Employment announces a social dialogue. She writes this today, on Equal Pay Day, in a letter to the House of Representatives.
“We need to talk about all aspects of the current inequality between men and women in the labor market,” said Minister Van Gennip. “The necessary cultural change is not happening fast enough. In the social dialogue I want to pay attention to the position of women in the labor market. The situation of families also plays a role in this. We want to know what challenges they face and what support they receive at work or from the government.”
The norm in the Netherlands is still that men are the main breadwinners and women focus more on care tasks and unpaid work. This standard influences the behavior of people and organizations in the labor market. In the Netherlands, for example, many more people, especially women, work part-time than in other European countries.
For women, a better position on the labor market leads to more economic independence and better career opportunities. Greater equality can also help address the current workforce shortages. Minister Van Gennip wants to talk to citizens and employers in three phases in 2023 and 2024. The aim is to identify the most important bottlenecks and to arrive at widely supported solutions.
Targeted measures for more equality
At the same time, Minister Van Gennip is taking targeted measures to realize more equal opportunities for women. For example, a quota has been set this year for more women at the top and young parents have been able to take partially paid parental leave for nine weeks since August. In addition, pilots are being carried out in various sectors to increase the number of hours worked.
Legislation is also being prepared in response to the EU directive proposal on wage transparency. This is currently still being negotiated in Europe. The proposal includes the right to information for employees about whether they are equally remunerated compared to colleagues who perform work of equal value. Furthermore, according to the proposed directive, large organizations must report annually on wage differences.
Today, on Equal Pay Day in the Netherlands, attention is drawn to equal pay. This day is on November 14 because then 87 percent of the year has passed. From this moment on, symbolically speaking, women work for nothing for the rest of the year. On this day, Minister Van Gennip attends the launch of the Equal Remuneration Guide of Women Inc. She also receives the manifesto ‘I Earn More’ from the trade union FNV and the Stichting Ik Verdien Meer.