NCPE conference highlights current developments in existing gender pay gap

Commemorating yesterday’s EU Equal Payday of 2021, the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality held an online conference circling around the topic of equal pay and the existing gender pay gap.

The gender pay gap entails the difference between average gross hourly earnings of male employees compared to female employees as a percentage – being 14.1% in the European Union and 11.6% in Malta.

Following the first public event with regards to pay inequalities in 2015, the NCPE has since addressed issues stemming from several complaints from female employees who brought light to the current salary imbalance between male and female employees.

The Commissioner for the NCPE, Renee Laiviera said that there is a considerable lack of women in managerial positions, an existing pay discrimination be it directly or indirectly, and a lack of pay transparency when it comes to the recruitment of employees.

Klabb 3-16, free Childcare scheme and remote working policies which facilitate work-life balance help working families and create an increase in participation of women in the labour market, as said by the Minister for Equality, Research and Innovation, Owen Bonnici. On a video shown during the conference, Bonnici pledged his full commitment to NCPE to ensure gender pay gap decrease.

Prof JosAnn Cutajar from the Faculty for Social Wellbeing Gender and Sexualities at the University of Malta said that according to her personal studies, the difference between the gender and race pay gap is relatively minimal, and so by proxy, while addressing women in this issue, race is also acknowledged.

Cutajar proposed several policies such as wage transparency for job applicants, as well as legislative action to facilitate the implementation and enforcement of the existing legal framework which includes empowering workers through salary information prior employment and a right to request information during employment.

Software developer Matthew Sacco presented the developments on the NCPE Equal Pay Tool – an evidence-driven framework which structures and gathers data regarding equal pay. This is passed on to the NCPE to assess pay across genders for work of the same value within an organisation and are then assigned an Equal Pay certification as well as Equality Mark certification for companies which request it.