Minister for Equality, the Hon Samantha Sacramento MP, hosted a reception to mark International Women’s Day. The reception at the University of Gibraltar celebrated Gibraltarian women who were the first to make significant achievements and pave the way for other women.

In her address, Minister Sacramento highlighted the Ministry of Equality’s ambitious work programme of initiatives and training opportunities planned for the next year. Whilst the progress made in women’s rights locally has been ground breaking, evidence indicates that there is still work to be done. Whilst Gibraltar has statutory protection for equal pay, the Ministry has analysed the statistical information available to investigate Gibraltar’s gender pay gap.

The Ministry has been able to distil the gender overall earnings gap: the difference in average annual earnings between men and women. Further work will be undertaken on the collection of data in more detail to continue the analysis but the preliminary findings show that:

• The average gender overall earnings gap in the EU is 39.6%.
• The average gender overall earnings gap in Gibraltar is 23.08%.

Not only does this stand well below the EU average, but is also below the figure of 2011 when it stood at 24.25%.

Minister Sacramento has made a call to action, and invited the private sector to work with Government on plans for a women’s mentorship programme. This will aim to narrow the gender pay gap by providing real support to women looking to progress their careers and achieve their goals.

The Minister’s address ended with a video clip, which celebrates women firsts. The video is available on the HM Government of Gibraltar Facebook Page: http://bit.ly/2oZ0Ct5