Closing the Gender Pay Gap with TGS

Encounter with Thorin Shiber

To help us optimize our participation in the UN Global Compact program, we met with Thorin Schriber, the regional manager for the UNGC who works on participant engagement. He answers some key questions about gender equality, goal number 5.

During our meeting, Thorin explained that even though all Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are important, this year Gender Equality is a key focus area. The general secretary has identified it as one of the most urgent goals for sustainable development.

“Equal pay for work of equal value”

To really understand the pay gap, we must understand the meaning of “equal pay for work of equal value”. It is more than just a man and a woman doing the same work for the same payment. It can also be a man and woman doing work that is different in nature. If the work done by the two of them is evaluated to be equal, but not recognized as such, then we speak about a gender pay gap.

So, what causes this phenomenon? There are aspects that can be measured and explained. Such as:

• Education and training
• Work experience and family intermission
• Occupation integrity and gender polarization

However, a large component that remains unexplained is due to discrimination. Unfortunately, most of the gap is attributed to this.

Women’s Empowerment Principles Gap Analysis Tool

At TGS we want to contribute to this change, so we call our members to action. If you really want to work on the gender pay gap, outlining a plan is a good step in the right direction, but we also want to act on all seven Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP), which are linked to principles 1, 2 and 6 of the UNGC.

Do you want to assess your gender equality performance yourself as well? Try out WEP’s Gap analysis tool. It only takes a few minutes and benchmarks your performance based on international standards.

In our sector of activity, the fundamental cause of the pay gap is the lack of women in senior roles. Therefore, we want to showcase successful women in leadership positions. We have recently launched the TGS Virtual Incubator. This program is all about putting women in financial services into the spotlight.

Think Global Sustainability.
Think Gender Balance in Senior positions.