Closing the gender pay gap

The EU Parliament has adopted an own-initiative report on reducing the gender pay gap in the European Union. The background is that women in the EU continue to earn less on average than men and often receive lower pensions in old age. The report analyzes various reasons for these differences. These include, among other things, the high proportion of women in lower-paid jobs, a greater prevalence of part-time and atypical employment relationships, and interruptions in employment, for example due to childcare or caring for relatives. Women continue to take on a large proportion of unpaid housework and care work, which can also have a long-term impact on their income and pension rights. The MPs are therefore calling for various measures to reduce the existing differences. These include, among other things, more transparency in wages and salaries, stronger enforcement of the existing rules on equal pay for equal work and better opportunities to combine work and family life. Better access to affordable, high-quality care and nursing services is also cited as an important step. Overall, political guidelines should be formulated with which the Member States can reduce existing inequalities. At the same time, the topic should also be given greater consideration in future European Union strategies for equality between women and men. Attention: The voting results shown on the right only reflect the voting behavior of the 96 German MEPs and not that of all 720 MEPs. The own-initiative report was adopted overall with 458 votes in favour, 72 against and 98 abstentions. Of the German MEPs, 74 voted for and 13 against. There were two abstentions from Friedrich Pürner (non-attached) and Andrea Wechsler (EPP).

Vote breakdown