Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Barbados (Ratification: 1974)

The Committee notes with deep concern that the Government’s report, due since 2018, has not been received. In light of its urgent appeal launched to the Government in 2021, the Committee proceeds with the examination of the application of the Convention on the basis of the information at its disposal.

Articles 1(b) and 2(2)(a) of the Convention. Equal remuneration for work of equal value. Legislation. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes, from the Government’s 2019 report under the national-level review of implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 1995 (Beijing+25 national report), that the National Gender Policy has not yet been adopted. The Employment (Prevention of Discrimination) Act having been adopted on 5 August 2020, the Committee notes with regret that it does not contain an equal pay provision. The Committee further notes that the Government, in its Beijing+25 national report, states that although there is no equal pay legislation it ensures that “equal pay for equal work” is guaranteed in the public service and that there is no disparity between the salaries paid to men and women doing the “same job”. The Committee recalls, once again, that the principle of the Convention not only guarantees equal remuneration for equal, the same or similar work, but also addresses situations where men and women perform different work that is nevertheless of equal value. In this regard, it refers the Government to its 2012 General Survey on fundamental Conventions, paragraphs 672–675. The Committee once again asks the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value is fully reflected in the National Gender Policy, and to provide a copy of the policy once it is adopted. It also asks the Government to provide information on any measures taken or envisaged to capture the principle of equal pay for work of equal value in its legislation.

Gender pay gap and occupational segregation. The Committee notes from the statistics published by the Barbados Statistical Service (Labour Force Survey 2021) that of all women employed in 2021, 41.2 per cent earned less than 500 Barbadian dollars (BBD) per week compared with 36.2 per cent of men employed in that same year. The Committee notes that 31.2 per cent of women and 35 per cent of men earned between BBD500 and BBD999 per week, and that 17.4 per cent of women and 15.7 per cent of men earned BBD1,000 per week or more. The Committee once again notes, from the Labour Force Survey 2021, the persistent occupational gender segregation between men and women, with women mostly employed as service workers and clerks while men are mostly employed as craft and related workers or plant and machine operators. The Committee notes that, when looking at economic sectors, women workers continue to be highly represented in “Accommodation and Food Services”, “Finance and Insurance”, “Education” and “Human Health and Social Work” and men continue to largely predominate in the “Construction” and “Transportation and Storage” sectors. The Committee also notes, from the concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the disproportionately high unemployment rate among women and the persistently wide and increasing gender pay gap in all sectors, continued occupational segregation in the labour market and the concentration of women in low-wage jobs in the formal and informal sectors (CEDAW/C/BRB/CO/5–8, 24 July 2017, paragraph 33). The Committee further refers to its comments under the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111). The Committee once again asks the Government to take measures to reduce the pay gap between men and women and to increase the employment of women in jobs with career opportunities and higher pay. The Committee once again recalls that wage inequalities may arise due to the segregation of men and women into certain sectors and occupations, and therefore again asks the Government to provide information on the results achieved under the National Gender Policy, once adopted, to address occupational gender segregation and to increase the employment of women and men in sectors and occupations in which they are under-represented.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request directly addressed to the Government.