Equal Pay Day: women work for free for the rest of the year

• Annabel van Gestel

  Text editor online

“Why do women always want more money?” asked a manager when Webby van den Berg asked for a pay rise. She held a higher position for a while and wanted to be paid more for it. “That was totally underappreciated.”

The trade union FNV has the stories of Webby and 42 other women folded to draw attention to Equal Pay Day: from today, women in the Netherlands work “for free” for the rest of the year.

In other words, women would have to work 47 days more this year to be paid the same as men.

Webby works in security. She discovered inequality at work when she noticed that she was working more night shifts than her male colleagues. “A colleague told me: that’s because you are a cheaper worker at night than the men,” Webby explains her experience at the FNV meeting.

Webby then asked her male colleagues what they had earned. “It turned out that all women in the same position received the same hourly wage, while male colleagues in these positions often received a higher hourly wage and were more likely to negotiate a salary increase.

Webby doesn’t think women are less good at negotiating than men. “I think it’s just made it a lot harder for women. “

“You are quickly silenced by the salary committee. The discussions scare you: where do you think you will find the courage to ask for a salary increase in the first place?”

Webby continued to raise the pay gap with her managers, without success. “I don’t feel like I’m seen as a full-fledged person, while women do the same work as men. Sometimes with more knowledge, experience and years of service.”

Liselotte van den Broek, who works in a city, also found by chance that she earned less than a male colleague in the same position. “During the initial meeting we found out he was two steps taller than me. We talked about what it could be. Was it experience? Education? That wasn’t the case really.”

Liselotte went to her managers. They said her colleague had just negotiated a better deal, but she didn’t want to balance salaries. “I have stated several times with good arguments why the salary should be at least. I also said: this is how you close the pay gap. They then turned it around: I would have said that I get paid less because I’m a woman.”

“I felt tired,” says Liselotte. “You would want management to have the balls to close the pay gap. In my case it was very bad: my managers were women.”

Last year, the EU agreed to a directive on payment transparency. This requires companies in the EU to be open about the wages of their employees. If the pay gap between men and women in the same position exceeds 5 percent without good reason, companies must take action.