(Brussels) “Women in the European Union still earn on average 16% less than men, a slight improvement from last year’s 16.2%”. “This year the European Equal Pay Day falls on 4 November. It marks the day when women symbolically stop getting paid compared to their male colleagues for the same job”. In the run-up to this day, First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Commissioners Marianne Thyssen and Vera Jourová stated: “It is 60 years since the equal pay principle was written into the European Treaties”, and yet women across Europe “still work for two months for free compared to their male colleagues”. “While we have made some steps in the right direction in the past five years, more needs to be done and faster”. And they added: “Pay transparency is important. In fact, 64% of Europeans have stated that they are in favour of the publication of average wages by job type and gender at their company”. “Pay transparency, combined with other solutions such as an equal distribution of caring responsibilities between women and men – enabled by new EU Directive on parental and carers’ leave – would help us tackle the root causes of the gender pay gap”. “We therefore welcome the announcement of President-elect von der Leyen to table measures introducing binding pay transparency in the first 100 days of the new mandate”.