The right to equal pay for work of equal value has been in place for years. One of the earliest countries in Europe to implement equal pay laws for women was Iceland in 1961, with other countries following suit.

Despite this, women throughout Europe still earn much less than men: in 2022, the gender pay gap was 12.7% in the EU, which means women were earning €87.30 for every €100 earned by men.

The persisting gender pay gap has even led to the concept of Women’s Pay Day — a day each year on which the average woman symbolically stops working for free based on salary comparison to the average man. In 2024, for the UK, that day was 21 February.

Read the full article here. This article first appeared on euronews.business on March 28th, 2024.