On average, women in the European Union earn less than 14.1% than men in comparable positions, a European Parliament Committee heard.

Earlier this month, the European Parliament's emploment and social affairs and women's rights and gender equality committees voted for Parliament's position on a new pay transparency law. This law is a first necessary step to end pay discrimination between men and women.

The law, proposed initially by the European Commission, will allow for pay transparency in companies. Workers will therefore have the right to receive information about pay and recruiters will be forbidden from asking candidates about their current pay. The European Parliament hopes this will end discrimination between men and women.

the Socialists and Democrats also secured a negotiating mandate which includes a strong definition on workers' representatives, strengthening of social dialogue and collective bargaining, and gender-neutral language so that the Directive applies to all workers in all their diversity. Finally, to fight the systematic lower pay in female-dominated sectors, the S&Ds insisted on provisions allowing cross-sector comparisons and the collection of more data.

"Our aim was to make sure that the gender pay gap is finally closed and that this is not the task of workers, mostly women, going to court but rather the obligation of companies and member states," Member of the European Parliament Evelyn Regner said.

"We fought for cultural changes like the possibility for workers to freely talk about their pay and to have information on pay levels and we created incentives for all companies to comply with the rules. Transparency is key in the fight for gender equality and thanks to the strengthening of the monitoring body and the gathering of data, we are coming much closer to equal pay for equal work and work of equal value for everyone," she added.

This article is part of a content series called Ewropej. This is a multi-newsroom initiative part-funded by the European Parliament to bring the work of the EP closer to the citizens of Malta and keep them informed about matters that affect their daily lives. This article reflects only the author's view. The European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.