At the end of 2022 the European Parliament and Council reached a political agreement on the proposal for a directive to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and woman through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms. This future Directive aims to ensure that women and men in the European Union are paid equally for equal work.
The right to equal pay between women and men for equal or work of equal value has been a founding principle of the European Union since the Treaty of Rome in 1957. However, the practical implementation and enforcement of this principle in the European Union remains a major challenge. In 2021, according to the EU Commission the gender pay gay was still 12,7% in the EU, varying from 0.7 % in Luxembourg to 22.3% in Latvia. Therefore the EU Commission launched a Gender Equality Strategy in 2020 which resulted in the legislative proposal.
