THE INTERNATIONAL Labour Organisation (ILO) has renewed its call for equal pay for work of equal value, warning that women globally continue to earn significantly less than men despite decades of international commitments to workplace equality.
The call was made on Friday, September 18, 2026, to mark International Equal Pay Day, an annual observance dedicated to advancing the principle that workers should receive equal remuneration for work of equal value.
The United Nations formally designated September 18 as International Equal Pay Day in 2019.
In a message marking the occasion, ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo said women around the world earn 18 per cent less than men, describing the disparity as more than a statistical difference in earnings.
“Work of equal value deserves equal pay,” Houngbo said, stressing that millions of women contribute to families, businesses, communities and economies while continuing to receive lower remuneration.
The ILO said closing the gender pay gap requires coordinated action by governments, employers and workers to address the structural factors that sustain inequalities in pay and employment.
Structural Barriers Remain
The gender pay gap refers to the difference in average earnings between women and men. It does not necessarily mean that every woman is paid less than a male colleague performing exactly the same job. Rather, the gap reflects a combination of factors, including occupational segregation, differences in career progression, unequal access to opportunities, discrimination and the undervaluation of work traditionally performed by women.
The ILO has previously identified motherhood and unequal care responsibilities as factors that can contribute to women’s lower earnings over their working lives. Women are also disproportionately represented in informal employment and lower-paid occupations, while remaining underrepresented in many senior and leadership positions.
The organisation’s more recent work on pay equity has similarly highlighted the importance of looking beyond salary comparisons for identical job titles. Its March 2026 publication, “Towards Pay Equity: A Comprehensive Response to the Gender Pay Gap”, calls for coordinated measures including pay transparency, objective job evaluation, stronger labour institutions, social dialogue, labour inspection, social protection and care policies.
The ILO’s approach reflects the principle of ‘equal pay for work of equal value’, under which jobs involving different tasks may nevertheless have comparable value and should be assessed through objective criteria rather than assumptions about the value of traditionally female- or male-dominated occupations.
ILO Urges Stronger Laws and Pay Transparency
In his Equal Pay Day message, Houngbo called for governments, employers and workers to remove structural barriers and strengthen the laws and institutions designed to promote equal pay.
He also highlighted ‘social dialogue and collective bargaining’ as mechanisms through which employers and workers can address the undervaluation of women’s work, improve wage structures and strengthen pay transparency.
The ILO’s 2026 pay-equity guidance similarly identifies transparency and objective job evaluation as important tools for identifying and addressing disparities. The organisation argues that closing the pay gap requires deliberate and coordinated policies rather than reliance on individual employers or workers to resolve disparities on their own.
The OECD, marking International Equal Pay Day this year, also reported that pay transparency measures such as gender-pay-gap reporting, equal-pay audits and gender-neutral job classification systems are increasingly being adopted. The organisation said that, by the end of 2026, 84 per cent of OECD countries were expected to mandate private-sector pay-gap reporting, compared with 55 per cent currently.
New ILO Gender-Equality Agenda
The ILO’s renewed emphasis on pay equity comes after the International Labour Conference adopted a ‘Resolution concerning the ILO transformative agenda for gender equality in the world of work’ in June 2026.
The resolution formed part of the outcomes of the 114th Session of the International Labour Conference, held in Geneva from June 1 to 12, where government, employer and worker representatives from the ILO’s 187 member states discussed gender equality alongside other major issues affecting the future of work.
The resolution reinforces ILO’s broader effort to address persistent gender inequalities in employment and strengthen action on equal treatment and opportunities in the workplace. The ILO has described progress in closing gender gaps as slow, despite significant advances in women’s rights and participation in the labour market over the past century.
The organisation has also adopted an Action Plan for Gender Equality for 2026–29, following consideration of its previous 2024–25 plan. The plan is intended to support implementation of the ILO’s transformative agenda for gender equality and its wider strategic priorities.
Beyond An Annual Observance
International Equal Pay Day is intended not only to highlight the existence of wage disparities but also to draw attention to the policies and workplace practices needed to reduce them.
The ILO has noted that the gender pay gap is influenced by multiple, interconnected factors, making it a broader labour-market issue rather than simply a question of individual salary negotiations.
The United Nations similarly notes that women continue to be paid less than men across all regions and estimates the global gender pay gap at around 20 per cent, while stressing that progress in narrowing the disparity has been slow.
For the ILO, the issue is therefore tied to wider questions of decent work, economic participation and social justice. Houngbo’s message argues that the changing nature of work, including technological and economic transformations, does not alter the underlying principle that workers should be treated fairly.
“Equal pay is a matter of rights, principle, dignity and social justice – for every worker, everywhere,” the ILO chief said.
