Prague, Nov 2 (CTK) – The Czech Republic has the third highest differences in the salaries of men and women in the EU, Vera Jourova, EU commissioner for justice, consumer protection and gender equality, said on Monday, adding that the gap is an average 22 percent compared with the European difference of 16 percent.
Jourova, who represents the Czech Republic in the European Commission, said the salaries difference also impacts pensions and it causes female seniors to be threatened with poverty in old age more than men.
Monday was marked as Gender Pay Day.
A campaign will be launched to alert to the inequality in the remuneration of men and women.
Jourova said one of the causes of women having lower salaries than men is the “segregation of professions.”
Women often work in professions and branches with lower salaries, such as health care and education, and they also mostly hold lower positions.
But they often get less money than men even for the same work done. “This is definitely at variance with the ban on discrimination,” Jourova said.
Another reason why women´s incomes are lower is care of their families´ members and households. A man devotes an average nine hours a week to these activities, while a woman four hours a day, Jourova said.
She said EU member countries should seek solutions to the differences in their social and tax systems. They should secure better conditions on the labour market for women. Flexible working hours, part-time jobs, enough nurseries and kindergartens and other services would help, Jourova said.
A campaign to alert to the differences in men and women´s salaries will be held in Prague and Brno during November. It is staged by the Open Society public benefit company.
An analysis Gender Studies released recently showed that the gap in men and women´s salaries is rising as positions and education are rising. The difference in leading positions is about 27 percent.
Klara Cmolikova Cozlova, from Gender Studies, said poverty threatens twice as many women over 65 years of age as men of the same age.
Three quarters of women take a pension under 11,000 crowns, while three quarters of men get more than 12,000 crowns, the campaign organisers said.
