Hello and welcome to the second series of ETIP podcast, Voices from the World of Work.

I am Bianca Luna Fabris, communications officer at the ETII, and I am the host for this season.

The European Commission has recently released the Gender Transparency Directive.

In this episode, we will try to understand

the faults and the merits of this legislative proposal. But first, let me introduce you

to today's guest, Kalina Rabajeva. She is specialized in EU labor law. She holds a PhD from

the University of Oxford and is a researcher here at the Institute. In the EU, women are, on average,

earning 14.1% less than men per hour. What are the factors that are driving this starkly inequality?

Well, the gender pay gap is caused by a number of different factors. One very significant factor

is the fact that women still perform a greater share of unpaid care work in the household, and that affects their participation in the labor market.

So, for example, to accommodate care responsibilities a lot more women than men work in part-time or temporary jobs, which are often paid less per hour.

They also take more career breaks to care for children which can have effects on career

progression or they hesitate to apply for higher level positions which will make greater demands

on their time. Another cause of the gap which is in part related is vertical occupational segregation,

which means that women tend to be underrepresented in higher level and managerial positions,

for example, which are better paid.

And to this must be added also horizontal occupational and sectoral segregation,

which means that women tend to be overrepresented in certain sectors or occupations that are less well paid.

So for example, the COVID pandemic has reminded us that women are overrepresented in the healthcare sector, especially in jobs such as nurses and carers.

And one of the reasons for lower paying those sectors and occupations is the fact that work typically perform their women, such as care work, is often culturally undervalued, which results in it being paid less than some other types of work

that require a similar level of skill and experience and effort. And yet another cause of the

gender pay gap is paid discrimination based on sex, which occurs when work, which is the same

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