Roundtable on Wage and Employment Gender Gap, 12 March 2019

WAGE AND EMPLOYMENT GENDER GAPS

Round Table Discussion organised by TUAC

12th of March 2019, 4.00 to 6.00 pm

CC 7, OECD Conference Centre

Please register at tuac@tuac.org before 6 March 2019.

Overview and aim of the round table

 Gender pay gaps represent one of today’s greatest injustices. A recent global report documents that women on average currently earn about 20 percent less than men. This pay gap is closely intertwined with occupational segregation and the polarization by gender of industries and economic sectors. Women continue to be underrepresented in traditionally male-occupied categories but even within similar categories women are consistently paid below men.

Moreover, the crowding of women into lower paid or even lower quality jobs has wider repercussions on workers as a whole: By dividing workers by gender, workers’ bargaining power suffers and so do wages and the labour share, thus affecting all workers. Gender inequality in employment is thus linked with dual labour markets and the broader trend of worsening inequalities.

The aim of this roundtable is to discuss what lies behind gender wage and employment gaps and to identify policies that can help closing those gender wage gaps, address dual labour markets and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of ‘equal pay for equal work of equal value” while reducing the gender gap in labour force participation by 25% by 2025.

Final Programme of the Round Table

Moderation by William Spriggs, chief economist AFL-CIO and chair of TUAC Working group on Economic Policy.

Introductory Remarks by Gabriela Ramos, OECD Chief of Staff and Sherpa to the G20

Speakers

– Rosalia Vazquez-Alvarez, Econometrician, Wage Specialist, ILO

– Monika Queisser, Head of Social Policy, OECD

– Elissa Braunstein, Professor and Chair of Economics at Colorado State University (by weblink)