Equal Pay Day is today, 15 November, and the European Commission reported the average gender pay gap in the EU stands at 13%. This means that women will make only €0.87 for every €1 that a man earns.

Equal pay Day symbolizes how many extra days women must work until the end of the year to earn what men earned in the same year.

“Equal Pay Day serves to remind us to continue our efforts to close the gender pay gap,” Věra Jourová, VP for values and transparency, and Helena Dalli, commissioner for equality, said in a joint statement in a press release. “Equal pay for the same work or work of equal value is one of the founding principles of the EU. It was laid down in the Treaty of Rome in 1957.”

Jourová and Dalli continued, “Yet progress on the elimination of the gender pay gap is stagnant this year and has been slow over the years. This reminds us that gender stereotypes continue to affect women and men in all spheres of life, including in the workplace, and that specific action is necessary to implement the principle of equal pay.”

They noted the Pay Transparency Directive went into force this past June.

“Under this new law, employees will be able to enforce their right to equal pay for equal work or work of equal value through a right to pay information,” they said.

“Those that are established to have suffered pay discrimination based on sex must get remedied for unpaid work and receive fair pay thereon,” Jourová and Dalli said. “Transparency is key to make a real change and this new legislation is an important step in that right direction. The implementation of the Directive by the Member States will now be key to enforce the principle of equal pay for all EU citizens.”