Building on the success of the Unequal Pay Day in 2018 and in 2017, this year we are again marking this day.

But what does “Unequal Pay Day” mean?
From 4 November on, women work for free

In the EU, women are paid 16% less than men on average. This means that, when compared to their male colleagues’ salaries, women work 2 months out of 12 for free.

Thus, on 4 November, PES Women together with zij-kant is calling for an action day to close the gender pay gap: the European Unequal Pay Day. This is a symbolic day to raise awareness on the fact that female workers in Europe still earn 16% less than men and which depicts that from this day on women effectively are working for free until the end of the year.

This 16% pay gap can be explained by multiple causes: segregation on the labour market, missing leave schemes that allow women and men equally to combine private life and careers, unpaid household and care responsibilities, to name but a few.

While the European pay gap of 16% translates into two full months of unpaid labour and thus leads to the European Unequal Pay Day on the 4 November, on national level this day can fall earlier or later in the year, depending on the respective pay gap in each Member State.

We are encouraging people to:

• send a postcard to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen asking for action to close the gender pay gap
• share the e-postcard on their social media accounts
• share our out-of-office reply, to underline the fact that from 4 November until the end of the year, women are working “for free”

Click here to download the e-postcard and the out-of-office reply (available in different languages).