It’s this year’s Equal Pay Day. The day that marks the difference between what men earn and what women earn. We feminists obviously believe that it is worth talking about these biases that cannot be explained away. Every year you can count on us wanting to talk both about what the pay differences look like, why it is like this and, not least, what we want to do about it. On the other side, there are other groups that you can almost set the clock to. They are mostly men, and they believe that the statistics are not correct. That the picture is not correct. That the reason why women earn less is because they work less. Often that women do not bother to take on responsibility, that women are more often on sick leave and are more concerned with other things than work. In general, they seem to think that the fact that women earn 88 percent of men’s wages is not a problem. I strongly disagree with that. I also can’t understand why anyone thinks it’s okay. That systematic discrimination should not be reacted to. That we should not point out the injustice. Year after year, well-grown opinion leaders allow themselves to be provoked on Equal Pay Day. They choose to be standard bearers – not to end the injustice – but to explain away the differences in wages. Of the type: “Wait a minute. Are you absolutely sure that all the decimals in the calculation are correct?” Of course, I know that different career choices and industries, private business versus public employment and working hours are not the same, but differences do not arise in a vacuum. They occur for a reason. It has to be worked on and political will and action are needed. But research from the Institute for Social Research shows that even when everything else is equal between women and men in working life, women still earn less per hour than men. We will therefore, in collaboration with the partners of working life, initiate a research project on wages. An important part of the project will be to point out the causes of pay differences, and show what are explained and unexplained differences and how working hours affect the pay differences. In addition, I would like to remind all large employers of this year’s new duty to survey and report pay by gender. We will follow the results. Finally, I have a challenge to all you financially well-established thinkers who believe that Equal Pay Day is bullshit: Make sure you do what you can to make the day redundant. Employ women. Even if they have had, or may have, children. Be an inclusive workplace – both for men who need paternity leave and for women who have sick parents. Contribute to creating a workplace that values the qualities and strengths of women and men equally. Work to ensure that the day moves in the right direction and with big steps year after year. And not least, give men and women equal pay for equal work. Can it be that difficult?
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