Women Earn 18% Less as ILO Chief Calls for Urgent Action to Close the Gender Pay Gap

At the heart of Houngbo’s message was the principle that a person’s contribution deserves fair recognition regardless of gender, with equal remuneration essential to both gender equality and social justice.

Women across the world still earn an average of 18 per cent less than men, a gap that has narrowed by just two percentage points over the past decade, leaving progress far too slow for the millions whose financial security depends on fair pay. Speaking at an International Equal Pay Day event in Dublin, International Labour Organization Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo called for decisive action to address the inequalities behind those figures, stressing that women's higher educational attainment has failed to eliminate the earnings divide. The consequences reach beyond a monthly salary, affecting economic independence, savings and the pensions women can rely on later in life.

Fair Pay Starts With How Work Is Valued

At the heart of Houngbo's message was the principle that a person's contribution deserves fair recognition regardless of gender, with equal remuneration essential to both gender equality and social justice. The ILO's Equal Remuneration Convention, No. 100, establishes equal pay for work of equal value, a standard that reaches beyond women and men receiving the same salary for the same job. It requires a closer look at how different occupations are valued and why work performed predominantly by women is often paid less, even when its demands and contribution deserve comparable recognition.

Closing the gap means addressing the connected disadvantages that shape women's working lives, including unequal care responsibilities, informal employment and barriers to decent work, entrepreneurship and leadership. Discrimination and stereotypes influence the opportunities available to women and the rewards attached to their work, allowing inequalities to accumulate across a career. An approach focused only on salaries within identical roles would leave these wider problems unresolved, because fair pay also depends on access to opportunities and the way different kinds of work are assessed.

Technology Must Help Identify Discrimination

The growth of green industries and the digital economy offers opportunities to build fairer pay practices into emerging occupations, making women's access to these jobs an important part of the discussion. Artificial intelligence and algorithmic systems are increasingly involved in recruitment, job classification, performance assessment and remuneration, giving technology a growing role in decisions that affect workers' earnings. Houngbo called for these systems to help identify and address discrimination instead of reproducing it, and stressed that women must have equal access to the opportunities created by both transitions.

Stronger institutions are equally important to turning the right to equal pay into an everyday reality, with social dialogue, collective bargaining and fair, inclusive wage-setting systems providing ways to put that principle into practice. Houngbo urged action now, making clear that equal pay for work of equal value cannot remain a promise reserved for the future. His message placed responsibility on the institutions and people shaping employment conditions to ensure that commitments translate into fairer treatment and remuneration.

Closing the Gap Takes Shared Responsibility

The Dublin event recognised that no government, institution or organisation can close the gender pay gap alone, and marked Ireland's first year as a member of the Equal Pay International Coalition, known as EPIC. Launched in 2017 and led by the ILO, UN Women and the OECD, the coalition brings together more than 80 members worldwide to accelerate progress towards equal pay for work of equal value. Hosted by the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU and Ireland's Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke, the gathering brought together EPIC's chair and members, EU Member State representatives, employers' and workers' organisations, academics and civil society to discuss progress and the action still needed.