Message from Birleşik Metal-İş on International Equal Pay Day: "Continue the Struggle for Equal Pay for Equal Work!"

ANKARA - In a press release issued on the occasion of September 18, International Equal Pay Day, the Women's Commission of the United Metal-İş Union announced that they will continue their struggle for the realization of the principle of equal pay for equal work. In the statement, it was pointed out that women face the problem of wage inequality in Turkey and around the world.

Why Women Earn Less

Birleşik Metal-İş noted that the reason September 18 is celebrated as International Equal Pay Day is that at this point in the year men have already earned what women will earn by the end of the year. This means that women would have to work about three months longer to earn the same as men.

The statement emphasized that, on average, women worldwide still earn 20 percent less than men. It was stated that a significant part of this difference cannot be explained by factors such as education, seniority, work experience, working hours or sector, and that millions of women earn less than men despite doing work of the same or equal value. It was stated that this injustice is a result of gender inequality and ongoing discrimination at work.

It was noted that throughout history, women's labor has been systematically devalued as "low-skilled" or "supplementary income" in industries where women are concentrated. The main reasons cited for the widening of this gap were men's higher-paid and higher-qualified jobs, gender roles, and the burden of domestic care responsibilities on women.

International Examples and Demands for Turkey

Birleşik Metal-İş emphasized that equal pay for equal work is one of the basic indicators of decent work and that the struggle for pay equality is therefore among the priorities of the international trade union movement. Citing the European Union's 2023 Wage Transparency Directive as an example, the union stated that this directive imposes obligations on companies to regularly report the gender pay gap, to disclose wage information in job advertisements, and the right of workers to request information on the gender pay gap.

Turkey has also been called upon to take effective steps against wage inequality, to make the necessary legal arrangements and to eliminate the structural causes of this problem, such as gender roles and placing the burden of care on women.

Duties of Trade Unions

The statement said that trade unions also have important duties in this process. It was emphasized that trade unions should, on the one hand, fight for the necessary legal regulations, on the other hand, implement pay equality in their own collective agreements and internal policies, and carry out activities to spread the principle of equality among their members and the society.

The Women's Commission of the United Metalworkers' Union announced to the public that they will resolutely continue their struggle for the elimination of gender pay inequality and the realization of the right to equal pay for equal work.