Across the globe, women earn less than men
for the same job or similar work
as well as for work of equal value,
and this explains also why the gender pay gap
in industrialised countries as well as in developing countries
continues to remain so stubbornly high.
This is the reason why member States have decided to join forces
with a view to achieving equal pay for work of equal value
by the year 2030
which is indeed a very bold and ambitious goal.
Why is it important that we deal with the gender pay gap?
It's a matter of course of justice, or fairness,
and if women's time continues to be valued less than men's time,
we'll never achieve gender equality at work
but also in society at large.
There are also very very compelling economic reasons
for making equal pay for work of equal value a reality.
We know that we need more women to join and remain in the labour markets
for economies to grow
in the context of rapid ageing of societies
and we need to get all under-represented groups into the labour market.
The second important economic reason is that
we know that if we give more money to women today,
this will reduce the likelihood that tomorrow they will live in poverty,
especially when we're talking of women in low paid jobs.
And last but not least,
we know that women have different consumption patterns than men,
and usually they tend to spend more money into
the health and education of their children.
And therefore I mean there are plenty of positive social
and economic ramifications
that would originate from equal pay for work of equal value.
EPIC is indeed an attempt of responding to the very ambitious goals
set by the 2030 Agenda
in an equally bold manner.
So it's a multi stakeholder alliance
which brings together governments, employers and workers’ organizations,
enterprises, academia as well as other actors of civil society.
Its goal is to try to accelerate the pace of change on the ground,
to engage in concerted action in order to move and progress
towards that target more quickly.
It will promote peer to peer exchanges
on what measures, what policies of the workplace or nationally
may work best and why.
It will also identify and disseminate good practices around the world
for different sectors,
it will also try to improve the collection and analysis of relevant statistics.
This initiative is being driven
by three international organizations.
This is a very good illustration of “One UN Plus”,
I'd say, because indeed we have the ILO, UN Women and OECD.
These are three organizations
that have very distinct constituencies and mandates
which are nonetheless very complementary.
Indeed in the case of the ILO, equal pay for work of equal value
is really part of our core business.
It's one of the fundamental principles
and shrine in Convention 100
which has been ratified by over 90 percent of ILO's member States.
UN Women is a very effective and powerful advocate
of women's empowerment and gender equality
while OECD is a key player when it comes to advancing gender equality
in the labour market and in the economy at large.
So we are really trying to bring together these three organizations
with a view to building upon our collaborative advantages
and therefore maximize impact.