Fair Pay Political Roundtable @ CSW
As part of the 65th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Fair Pay Innovation Lab teamed up with PES Women, Foundation for European Progressive Studies and Foundation Jean-Jaurès to organize a virtual Fair Pay Political Roundtable on March 16, 2021.
Commissioner for Equality at the European Commission, Helena Dalli, set the scene in her keynote address. This March, the European Commission published a bold and far-reaching draft for a directive on pay transparency. With this directive, the European Commission would set new standards on fair pay in Europe.
In the following panel discussion, a truly international debate on fair pay was witnessed. Manuela Tomei, Director of the Conditions of Work and Equality Department at the ILO, elaborated on the latest research and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on fair pay. The first Federal Equal Pay Commissioner of Canada, Karen Jensen, discussed latest legislative changes and the ongoing development of tools for companies and organizations to measure equal pay for work of equal value. Alex Chadwick, Manager at the Gender Pay Gap Taskforce at the Public Service Commission New Zealand, clearly demonstrated that legislation has a positive impact. Due to latest changes on legal requirements, the gender pay gap in the public sector in New Zealand had decreased significantly. Birte Meier, Journalist, stated that national laws would only have a major impact when they targeted remuneration structures. Individual action only had a limited effect, as the individual right to disclosure in the German Pay Transparency Act demonstrated.
Henrike von Platen, CEO / Founder of FPI Fair Pay Innovation Lab, introduced in her call to action, the Universal Fair Pay Check – a certification process to close all internal organizational pay gaps in in three phases, and to offer equality and equal opportunities for all employees. Based on a thorough pay analysis, the Universal Fair Pay Check unites the best statutory initiatives in the world to form a single method: the pay analyses from Switzerland, the standardisation process from Iceland and the transparency initiative from Great Britain.
The video of the event is available via the NGO CSW Platform.
More information on the Universal Fair Pay Check here