Gender pay gap

New complaints of discrimination have hit the film awards season after Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman slammed the gender pay gap as "crazy" and said it was even worse in Hollywood than in other jobs.
 

New report from the International Labor Organization has highlighted the enormous challenges women continue to face in finding and keeping decent jobs around the world, noting that the difference in the employment rate between men and women had decreased only by 0.6 percent since 1995.

On the occasion of European Equal Pay Day 2015, the European Commission draws attention to the gender pay gap, and its underlying causes.

The gender pay gap reflects ongoing discrimination and inequalities in the labour market which, in practice, mainly affect women. Its causes are complex and interrelated.

Despite the EU’s 2006 Directive on equality between men and women in the labour market, differences in their pay persist and are even growing, say MEPs in a non-legislative resolution voted on Thursday.

The gender pay gap varies significantly across EU Member States, the bloc's statistical office said on Thursday.

According to new Eurostat data, in 2013, women's gross hourly earnings were on average 16.4% below those of men in the 28 European Union member states and 16.6% in the 17 countries of the eurozone.

Women's gross hourly earnings were on average 15 % below those of men in Bulgaria in 2012, according to Eurostat data.