February 22: European Equal Pay Day

Pay equality is not yet a reality in our society and that is why it is claimed through a day like today, February 22, a day to put the focus on one of the most unfair inequalities, between men and women, and which has also been the case since the birth of capitalism, since the perpetuation of gender roles means that women start from a worse situation when they begin their working life.

The Ministry of Equality celebrates between February 22 and 28 the Equal Pay Week during which various actions will be carried out aimed at publicizing the operation of important tools, such as the remuneration registry and the evaluation of jobs.  

In gender.

Reality presents a social scenario in which differences not only exist when one has accessed the labor market, but also before that moment. And if women are the ones who historically assume care tasks, their career path is blurred, not only in the economic field, but also in that of promotion or training.  Remunerating unequally for work of equal value carried out by a man and a woman has had a perfect breeding ground in the pandemic since it has meant a significant decrease worldwide in the 'quality' of the work and the conditions in which they are carried out. It is a reality that no one escapes that the pandemic has put in check not only the health systems, but also the surveillance capacity at the highest level so that these situations do not occur.  

That is why women have benefited to a greater extent from regulatory changes such as the progressive increase in the Minimum Interprofessional Wage, because they were the ones who started with worse conditions, lower salaries, more temporality, more seasonality and more part-time contracts.