Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value

In order to ensure that no one is left behind, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address the need to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls.

Furthermore, the SDGs promote decent work and economic growth by seeking full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value.

Mainstreaming of a gender perspective is crucial in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Achieving equal pay is an important milestone for human rights and gender equality. It takes the effort of the entire world community and more work remains to be done.

The United Nations, including UN Women and the International Labour Organization (ILO) invites Members states and civil society, women’s and community-based organizations and feminist groups, as well as businesses and workers’ and employers’ organizations, to promote equal pay for work of equal value and the economic empowerment of women and girls.

Why does the gender pay gap persist?

Ingrained inequalities cause the gender pay gap. Women, especially migrant women, are overrepresented in the informal sector, leading to low-paying, unsafe working conditions without social benefits.

Women also perform three more hours of daily care work than men, including household tasks and caring for children and the elderly.

The motherhood penalty exacerbates pay inequity, with working mothers facing lower wages, particularly as the number of children they have increased.

Gender stereotypes, discriminatory hiring practices, and promotion decisions also contribute to pay inequalities.

What must be done?

At a time when labour markets appear to be weakening, there are widening inequalities, and mounting challenges to multilateralism, our collaborative message must be even more powerful:

equal pay for work of equal value is a fundamental matter of labour and human rights, social justice, and economic resilience, and a strategic priority for building competitive and sustainable enterprises.

As a Fundamental Convention, the ILO’s Equal Remuneration Convention (C100) directly addresses the principle of equal pay for men and women for work of equal value.

International Labour Standards emphasize the crucial role of workers’ and employers’ organizations in achieving this goal through social dialogue, with freedom of association and collective bargaining at its core.

Countries must reinforce equal pay for work of equal value as a shared goal that benefits workers, businesses and society at large. 

Achieving equal pay for work of equal value and position pay equity is a human right and social development imperative.

Equal Pay International Coalition

The Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) is led by the ILO, UN Women, and OECD. The Coalition’s goal is to achieve equal pay for women and men everywhere.

By bringing together a diverse set of actors with different areas of focus and expertise, EPIC supports governments, employers, workers, and their organizations to make concrete and coordinated progress towards this goal.

EPIC is currently the only multi-stakeholder partnership working to reduce the gender pay gap at the global, regional and national levels.

From unpaid care work and pay equity to AI bias – three actions to boost equality

This self-paced course from the ILO helps you to learn about gender pay policy and how to reduce the gender pay gap.