Changes from plenary report to adopted text

S. whereas Spain has incorporated several regulations establishing a comprehensive legal system aimed at reducing the gender gap, such as the temporary gender gap supplement granted to women who are entitled to a contributory pension and have been mothers (biological or adoptive), and for which men could be eligible if they can prove that their professional career has been interrupted or affected by the birth or adoption of a child;

T. whereas women of menopausal age constitute the fastest-growing group in the workforce, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO); whereas this trend is expected to continue and further increase; whereas the topic of menopause in the workplace remains largely invisible;

U. whereas a more competitive and fairer EU economy, with more and better-quality jobs, combined with proactive measures for women-dominated sectors, will be key to closing the gender pay and pension gaps in a sustainable and growth-oriented way, ensuring the full participation of women in the labour market, with recommendations based on best practice, and will enable women to advance in high-value sectors such as science, technology, engineering, law and finance; whereas best practice, particularly in information campaigns such as the ‘orange envelope’, help inform people insured by national public pension systems about their savings for their pension;

V. whereas the Draghi and Letta reports stress that Europe is not fully using its available talent, particularly among highly educated women; whereas the persistence of a ‘glass ceiling’ in both public and private sectors constrains women’s access to senior, managerial and decision-making positions; whereas gender equality must begin with equal opportunities for girls and boys from the earliest stages of education; whereas promoting girls’ participation in STEM and digital skills is crucial for building a gender-balanced and competitive European economy;

W. whereas promoting gender equality in employment and entrepreneurship, and ensuring the balanced participation of women and men in the labour market, are key conditions for sustainable growth, higher productivity, innovation and the sustainable long-term competitiveness of the European economy; whereas promoting equal opportunities for both women and men contributes to Europe’s demographic and economic resilience and could substantially increase the EU’s GDP per capita and its fiscal sustainability;

X. whereas in a dynamic, innovation-driven social market economy, skills, productivity and performance should be rewarded, creating more opportunities for women to advance in high-value sectors such as technology, agriculture, industry, defence, medicine, law and finance; whereas this would encourage and support girls and young women to pursue education and careers in these high-value sectors from an early age, helping to dismantle gender stereotypes and widen future career choices;

Z. whereas labour market imbalances can be reduced by upholding the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value, addressing the undervaluation of women-dominated sectors and removing barriers so that more women can enter high-paying, men-dominated sectors; whereas the gender pay gap is highest in such sectors; whereas society also depends on essential services such as care, which are often underpaid and predominantly carried out by women; whereas pay in these sectors should be fair and sustainable to support women and their families, strengthen workforce participation and improve the status of these professions; whereas the risk of poverty and, to a lesser degree, the risk to women’s financial autonomy induced by the gender pay and pension gaps further exposes women to gender-based violence, in particular domestic violence, making it more difficult for them to leave an abusive relationship; whereas according to the UN, almost 35 % of women worldwide experience psychological or sexual harassment in the workplace or harassment with serious consequences in terms of personal and professional aspirations; whereas this damages women’s self-esteem and weakens their position for negotiating fairer remuneration; whereas high unemployment, weak pay growth and insecure work can affect women disproportionately; whereas this has an adverse impact on the economic empowerment of women and on achieving equality between women and men; whereas well-designed labour market reforms, a competitive economy and sustainable public finances can support job creation and opportunity; whereas public services and social support should be targeted and effective, ensuring value for money while protecting the most vulnerable people;

AA. whereas pension systems across the EU are generally based on three pillars: state pensions, occupational pensions provided by employers, and private savings or investments; whereas women’s lower earnings, career interruptions, care responsibilities and over-representation in non-standard forms of work often result in reduced entitlements in all three pillars, thereby exacerbating the gender pension gap and increasing the risk of poverty in old age; whereas in the care economy, most jobs are performed by women, while leadership and decision-making remain disproportionately dominated by men; whereas pay transparency can play a crucial role in ensuring that substantial progress is made in addressing the gender pay gap, as it helps to reveal the undervaluation of women’s work and to highlight gender aspects of the labour market segmentation, including through tools providing objective criteria that allow for gender-neutral assessment and comparability of the value of work in different jobs and sectors; whereas the impact of Council Directive 79/7/EEC on Member States’ possibilities of addressing the gender pension gap must be taken into account; whereas gender-responsive spending reviews can improve value for money in public budgets and can ensure that measures are better targeted to support family and work;

AB. whereas job evaluation methods that are free from gender bias are essential to enable jobs to be compared on the basis of their scale and complexity, in order to determine the position of one job in relation to another within a given sector or organisation, regardless of whether the jobs in question are held by women or men; whereas women with disabilities face significantly worse labour market outcomes, and consequently have even poorer pension prospects, than both men and women without disabilities;

AC. whereas gender equality must be pursued through an intersectional approach that recognises how different forms of discrimination and disadvantage – including those based on age, disability, racial or ethnic origin, socio-economic status, sexual orientation and place of residence – can worsen inequalities experienced by women and girls in education, employment and access to social protection;

AD. whereas collective bargaining is a determinant of the reversal and overcoming of inequalities; whereas it does not suffice to guarantee equal salary for work of equal value in poverty, as equality in salaries should be achieved alongside a general increase in workers’ salaries and improvements in their working conditions in order to guarantee them dignity and social justice;

State of play

1. Recalls that equal pay for equal work or work of equal value is a founding EU principle and that the Member States have an obligation to eliminate gender-based discrimination in all aspects of remuneration, working conditions and types of employment contracts; recalls that full implementation of the Pay Transparency Directive will help eliminate gender-based discrimination and bias at work, e.g. in hiring practices and pay structures;

2. Regrets the fact that the gender pay and pension gaps continue to persist in the EU, which has a negative impact on women’s social and economic situation and therefore on society as a whole; regrets the fact that, while there has been a modest reduction over the past decade in the average gender pay and pension gaps across the EU, the current pace of change remains insufficient to close the gaps before 2100; regrets that old-age poverty and exclusion remain a challenge for older women, and that these are increasing against the overall trend, underlining the need to strengthen sustainable pension systems and support active ageing; welcomes the announcement of an EU anti-poverty strategy and asks the Commission to ensure synergy between that proposal and the upcoming gender equality strategy to address the gender and intersectional risks of poverty;

3. Recalls that across the EU, women are at greater risk of poverty than men, particularly women experiencing intersectional forms of discrimination, such as single mothers, older women, women with disabilities, third-country nationals, LGBTIQ+ people and women in rural areas; stresses that the gender pension gap is not only the result of accumulating pay inequalities over the course of a lifetime but also of different opportunities on the labour market, unequal distribution of informal care work at home, and gender bias in society; calls for policies that recognise these disadvantages while promoting participation in quality employment and equal opportunities; notes that, as old-age pensions represent on average four-fifths of total income in retirement, and given ongoing demographic challenges, failing to address the gender pension gap could threaten Member States’ long-term social cohesion and the sustainability of social protection systems;

4. Underlines that women’s individual freedom and economic independence are essential for their personal security and dignity, and that low participation in the labour market increases vulnerability to abuse, gender-based violence, including domestic violence and violence in public spaces, and economic dependence; calls on the Member States to take targeted measures to prevent and combat gender-based violence and harassment, both online and offline, including through awareness campaigns, enforcement of the Istanbul Convention and ratification of the ILO Violence and Harassment Convention (Convention 190) to ensure effective victim protection mechanisms in the world of work;

5. Notes that women still carry out a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work, which reduces their labour market participation and pension accrual; recognises that the traditional gender roles, biases and unequal division of care responsibilities among women and men creates a motherhood pay penalty and a penalty for caring for -children, family members or other dependants who have disabilities or are older or sick, and that these penalties not only contribute to the persistent gender pay and pension gaps but can also discourage women who want to have children from doing so, at a time when many EU countries are facing demographic decline, as they reduce the opportunities for young women, in particular, in the labour market;

6. Emphasises that insufficient investment in, and the limited availability, high cost and lack of adequate infrastructure for, quality childcare and long-term care services remain a key challenge to, primarily, women’s full participation in society and the labour market, and can result in women leaving the labour market prematurely or involuntarily doing part-time work and can hinder their career progression; underlines the need to systematically recognise and reflect unpaid care work in policy design and social protection systems while, at the same time, facilitating opportunities for women to return to the labour market; recognises that care is a cornerstone of society and is, to a large extent, provided by women; recalls that caring for children and for family members or other dependants who have disabilities or are older or sick often represents additional or even full-time responsibilities; highlights the fact that this reality is reflected in labour market patterns, including higher rates of part-time work, lower hourly wages, career interruptions and shorter duration of employment among women; calls for policies that support families in all their diversity, promote work-life balance, and encourage both men and women to share caring responsibilities, while ensuring that care work, whether formal or informal, is respected and fairly valued within society;

Benefits of gender equality for society, economic growth, competitiveness and combating discrimination

8. Highlights the fact that in 2023, the pay gap was higher in the private sector than in the public sector in the majority of EU countries and that specific efforts are needed to ensure that companies actively encourage non-discriminatory practices and promote equal opportunities and equal pay for work of equal value;

9. Recalls that employees and businesses are the driver of the EU’s competitiveness, as recognised in the Draghi report; emphasises that skills and labour shortages, exacerbated by a shrinking working-age population, are seriously hampering EU productivity and growth; points out that improving women’s labour market participation and working conditions, particularly in current and emerging sectors linked to the twin transitions, could help alleviate these pressures; calls for gender equality and the combating of gender stereotypes to be mainstreamed in a manner that supports women’s participation in the workforce, skills development and competitiveness, and encourages the removal of barriers to opportunity across the EU’s competitiveness, industrial, skills and digital agendas;

10. Calls on the EU and its Member States to apply gender equality to programming, public services and, in particular, the provision of sexual and reproductive healthcare, including access to free, safe and legal abortion;

11. Calls for the development of gender-responsive strategies and policies in the digital sector and for targeted efforts to integrate women more effectively into the labour market;

12. Recalls that objective, merit-based hiring and promotion practices and equal opportunities, supporting services and the rights of all to participate, are the basis of equal treatment leading to fair competition in a functioning labour market, which can reduce the biases that negatively affect women’s career advancement and consequently penalise their earnings, including discriminatory behaviours based on gender, race, disability, age and sexual orientation and identity; calls, in this regard, for the full implementation and monitoring of the Gender Balance on Corporate Boards Directive and encourages small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and other non-listed companies to follow best practice on gender balance in management; notes, furthermore, that a resilient, inclusive and sustainable society and growth-driven economy provides well-paid, quality jobs in women-dominated sectors that enable women to build up solid pension entitlements during their careers;

13. Notes the need to ensure that women working in the defence sector do not face any form of discrimination based on stereotypes and that they have access to well-paid, stable careers with adequate pension contributions;

14. Considers that the Member States should focus on reducing barriers to employment and entrepreneurship, supporting work-life balance for families through adequate parental leave policies, flexible working arrangements and the right to disconnect, early childhood education networks, high-quality, accessible and affordable childcare and long-term care services that are compatible with full-time work, and investing in training, reskilling and upskilling programmes helping to address skills shortages, including for single mothers, older women, LGBTIQ+ people, women with disabilities, women in vulnerable situations, third-country nationals and women residing in rural and remote areas and the outermost regions, as they are most likely to have difficulty accessing training and work opportunities; commends women’s contribution to the rural economy;

Challenges

15. Highlights the fact that gender segmentation across sectors and occupations is an important structural driver of the gender pay gap; stresses that this segmentation is both horizontal, with women over-represented in low-paying and historically undervalued sectors, and vertical, whereby, within the same sector, women are less likely to be in better paid senior and management roles; underlines that women-dominated sectors are generally lower paid and undervalued owing to various factors and that this cannot be justified by differences in competence or merit, with more women than men receiving low pay and the minimum wage in nearly all EU Member States despite younger women increasingly outperforming younger men in educational attainment;

16. Highlights the fact that only 30 % corporate board members are women, while fewer than 1 in 10 board presidents or chief executive officers (CEOs) of large companies are women, indicating that women remain substantially under-represented in senior roles, leadership and mentorship programmes; notes that the gender pay gap is highest in well-paid jobs; underlines that persistent glass ceilings in management, research and innovation constrain productivity and competitiveness; stresses that closing the leadership gap is essential to achieving the EU’s objectives; emphasises that variable forms of pay, such as company shares or bonuses, are becoming more common and are currently increasing more rapidly among men than women, underscoring an important opportunity to ensure that the growth of these new compensation models benefits women equally and supports progress towards closing the gender pay gap;

17. Recalls the unique role of carers and the essential nature of care provision in our society, particularly in the light of current demographic trends and an ageing population; stresses that a key factor in the gender pay and pension gaps is the unequal share of care and domestic responsibilities shouldered almost exclusively by women; recalls the fact that women are more likely to be unemployed, work part-time, work in lower paying women-dominated sectors and take career breaks, and that this can be attributed in part to the care penalty, which has a consequent impact on pay and career progression and contributes to the risk of poverty; recalls, furthermore, that periods of absence from employment to take on caring responsibilities do not count towards accruing pension entitlements, despite the costs saved by the state through informal care carried out by women;

18. Recalls the right to parental leave as enshrined in the Work-Life-Balance Directive, and stresses the need for its full and effective implementation; underlines that policy must tackle unequal burden-sharing between women and men and support the fair distribution of parental leave and care responsibilities between parents to achieve an ‘equal earner, equal carer’ model; calls on the Member States to promote non-transferable, adequately paid paternity leave and to introduce awareness campaigns and incentives to increase men’s uptake of parental leave, and to include measures to monitor and report progress on uptake disaggregated by gender; emphasises the role of employers in making full-time employment compatible with care responsibilities;

19. Calls on the Member States to work closely with the social partners to take active and coordinated measures, including targeted training and mentoring to address the structural gender inequalities that underpin women’s reluctance to apply for promotion or to highlight their own achievements; stresses that this reluctance is not a matter of individual choice but stems from entrenched gender stereotypes, occupational segregation and inadequate career guidance, particularly affecting low-skilled and marginalised women; urges the Member States to work closely with the social partners to dismantle these barriers through inclusive workplace cultures, improved career development frameworks and proactive equality strategies;

20. Warns of the steady increase, since 2015, in old-age poverty and social exclusion, affecting older women in particular, and the dramatic poverty rates of women over 75 in several Member States, as a symptom of overall gender inequality in lifetime earnings; emphasises that older women are more likely to spend longer periods of their lives in need of care and support services themselves, the costs of which surpass average pension income in most Member States;

21. Stresses that unconscious gender biases in recruitment, promotion and pay setting contribute to the gender pay gap; emphasises that gender stereotypes, which relegate women into traditionally women-dominated, low-paying sectors, favour men over equally qualified women candidates, and that the ‘sticky floor’ for women’s career advancement and the impact of gender norm dynamics in pay negotiations are compounded over the course of women’s professional lives;

22. Underlines that it is essential to strengthen care services in order to increase women’s participation in the labour market, close gender employment, pay and pension gaps and address skills and labour shortages by generating resilient quality employment; calls on the Commission and the Member States to fully implement the European care strategy and the Council Recommendation on long term care, to set national targets for availability, accessibility and quality of childcare and long-term care coverage and to earmark resources within the European Semester and EU funding instruments for high-quality, affordable, accessible care services; stresses that public investment in care infrastructure should be classified as growth-enhancing expenditure under the revised EU economic governance framework; calls on the Member States to ratify the ILO Domestic Workers Convention of 2011;

23. Stresses that closing the childcare gap remains one of the key opportunities to improve the lives of new parents across the EU; notes that this gap often appears after the birth of a child, once paid parental leave ends and before access to full-time early childhood education and care becomes available; underscores that supporting families during this transition period can significantly strengthen parents’ ability to remain in the labour market;

24. Notes that women-led firms often operate in lower-paying sectors and face additional obstacles such as limited access to finance, gender bias and regulatory hurdles;

26. Stresses that financial insecurity and inequality are closely linked to psychological well-being and that the mental health impact of pay inequality should not be overlooked; notes that women are more likely than men to experience mental health problems, such as burnout and chronic depression, especially in sectors characterised by low-paid and emotionally demanding work;

The way forward

27. Welcomes the Commission’s continued efforts to promote gender equality and calls on it to put forward a new, detailed, result-oriented and ambitious EU gender equality strategy, building on previous progress and best practice, and to propose a dedicated action plan to eradicate the gender pay and pension gaps, through evidence-based measures, adopting a cross-sectoral approach and with EU-level quantitative and time-bound goals ensuring that gender equality policies, which are a precondition for healthy, prosperous societies, also contribute to sustainable economic growth, competitiveness, entrepreneurship, innovation and family well-being and work-life balance;

28. Calls, furthermore, for the action plan to include targeted measures to improve working conditions and fair pay in women-dominated sectors, to support families and to prioritise investment under the next multiannual financial framework that strengthens work-life balance and a reliable care sector; stresses the need for an approach that respects national competences and the diverse realities of women across the EU;

29. Calls on the Commission to work with the Member States and the social partners to develop guidelines and a European pilot project for gender-neutral job evaluation and classification systems, allowing for an EU-wide comparison of work of equal value and the definition of clear criteria for fairly assessing the value of work and for merit-based pay systems in women-dominated sectors, while avoiding unnecessary regulatory or financial obligations on employers; notes that this should be done across sectors and by ensuring collective bargaining rights; stresses that fair valuation enhances job quality, motivation and competitiveness without undermining labour market flexibility; encourages the Commission and the Member States to continue providing training, where appropriate, to better support gender-neutral recruitment and evaluation processes;

30. Calls on the Commission to put in place a European care deal, as announced during the 2024 parliamentary hearings; calls for this deal to include a set of policies, programmes and recommendations, combined with a specific care investment package, aimed at fostering a transition towards a care economy that recognises care as a right, and values it as the backbone of our society; calls, in this context, for the creation of a dedicated funding stream under the 2028-2034 multiannual financial framework to roll out services to support informal carers;

31. Calls on the Member States to reward work and promote solutions that strengthen families in all their diversity while ensuring fiscal responsibility and support for enterprises, such as expanding flexible working arrangements for parents and individuals and the right to disconnect, offering tax incentives for caregiving years and benefits for single parents, and investing in the provision of high-quality, affordable and accessible childcare and long-term care services that are compatible with full-time employment and gender-equal parental leave policies; calls, furthermore, on the Member States to encourage actions, through social dialogue and collective bargaining, to facilitate women’s full participation in the labour market and reduce their rates of career breaks and part-time work, which are higher than men’s; calls for dedicated measures to facilitate women’s return to work after long career breaks with reintegration measures and targeted incentives such as reskilling schemes;

32. Calls on the Commission, while respecting national competences, to issue guidelines to help identify and address tax arrangements, such as joint taxation schemes, that may discourage secondary earners from participating actively in the labour market, in order to ensure that national tax policies support gender equality and women’s broader participation in the labour market and to facilitate the exchange of best practice;

33. Highlights the importance of fostering women’s entrepreneurship and the role of women-led businesses in improving economic empowerment and potential earnings over a lifetime; stresses the need for better support at both EU and national levels, in particular as regards business development, mentorship programmes, access to finance and venture capital, and improved financial literacy for women, supported by InvestEU, the European Innovation Council and the Enterprise Europe Network, with targeted measures for under-represented groups, including women in rural areas and STEAM sectors; calls on the Commission to address these aspects in the next gender equality strategy and underlines the importance of early entrepreneurship and financial literacy education for girls to nurture future women entrepreneurs;

34. Underlines that more women should be encouraged to put themselves forward through leadership, development, mentorship and support for work-life balance; notes the Commission’s inclusion of a gender dimension in its quality jobs roadmap, and stresses the need to ensure that related initiatives address the fair recognition of work typically performed by women across sectors, and to improve job quality and working conditions, thereby contributing to a more productive workforce and a stronger, more competitive European economy;

35. Stresses the need to break down occupational gender segmentation by recognising the value of women-dominated sectors such as education, healthcare and social services in terms of pay and working conditions and by enabling more women to participate in high-paying sectors such as ICT, STEAM and finance, as well as in senior management and workplace leadership roles, e.g. as CEOs, and in public and political life; highlights the need to ensure that more gender-sensitive and dynamic career guidance is mainstreamed across all education and training levels so that silos are brought down as early as possible; encourages the Member States and employers to provide gender-sensitive career guidance from an early stage and to promote balanced representation in senior and decision-making positions;

36. Stresses the importance of ensuring that all subjects across all levels of education and training are equally accessible to women and girls; underlines the need to eliminate cultural and gender bias and stereotypes in curricula, teaching materials and career guidance and in training for educators, in order to prevent the channelling of women and girls into a limited number of study areas or occupational sectors; encourages the Member States to promote better access for girls to traditionally male-dominated fields; calls for the promotion of gender-responsive educational policies that encourage and support girls to pursue studies and careers in all fields, including STEAM;

37. Emphasises the need to better financially value work done in women-dominated sectors, to guarantee the right to equal pay for work of equal value, to provide information on workers’ individual pay levels and average pay levels, and to improve working conditions, particularly pay and career progression, which improves women’s financial independence and reduces their risk of poverty; stresses that improving conditions in women-dominated sectors will also reduce gender segmentation and address worsening labour shortages; calls on the Commission to include a strong gender dimension in the forthcoming initiative on a framework to address long-term care and workforce challenges and in all actions under the Union of Skills and in the upcoming Quality Jobs Act; calls on the Member States to take concrete measures to ensure equal pay for equal work, while encouraging policies that support fair wage growth linked to productivity, competitiveness and economic sustainability;

38. Emphasises that persons with disabilities, in particular women with disabilities, continue to face multiple and intersecting barriers to accessing employment, training and entrepreneurship; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote equal access to quality jobs, vocational education and funding opportunities, in line with the European disability rights strategy, making full use of existing EU and national instruments; stresses that inclusion and accessibility are essential components of Europe’s social market economy and competitiveness;

39. Calls on the Member States, together with the social partners, to design multi-year, fiscally responsible career and pay paths in essential public and care services (healthcare, social care, education) to improve quality, skills and retention; invites the Member States to make targeted use of the European Social Fund Plus and, where appropriate, the Recovery and Resilience Facility for training, upskilling and retention, avoiding permanent distortions in wage dynamics;

40. Encourages the Commission and the Member States to create voluntary incentive mechanisms, such as simplified administrative procedures, public recognition or priority access to EU funds, for employers who implement gender equality plans and best practice in pay transparency;

41. Stresses the importance of ensuring fair remuneration in women-dominated sectors, while maintaining wage-setting autonomy for the social partners and respecting national traditions of collective bargaining;

42. Underscores how formal work with good-quality working conditions, particularly in women-dominated sectors, can strengthen tax bases and ensure that women workers are recognised and protected under the law; notes that tackling the informal economy through targeted reforms, such as simplifying the administration of tax requirements and supporting entrepreneurship, can better ensure a level playing field for women in the labour market; calls, therefore, on the Member States to simplify access to the formal economy, promote measures to combat the grey economy and formalise work contracts to protect workers in informal sectors, such as domestic work, personal care, agriculture and seasonal jobs, to combat undeclared work, strengthen fair competition and ensure that women can contribute to social protection systems and access training and other labour-related rights and protections; calls on the Commission and the Member States to step up their work on combating in-work poverty, which negatively affects the standards of living of women, including informal workers who often lack good salaries and access to social security;

43. Acknowledges the long-term financial impact that extended periods of unpaid care can have for women; calls on the Member States to ensure robust gender-sensitive social protection systems, including for those who take career breaks to care for dependants; emphasises, while recognising that pension systems are primarily a national competence, the importance of adequate national minimum pensions and care credits for pension entitlements for those who take career breaks to care for dependants; highlights the need to ensure adequate protection and income support for informal carers and to ensure the inclusion of part-time workers in second-pillar pension provision; highlights the need to integrate gender pension gap indicators into the EU Social Scoreboard and to integrate measures to combat gender-related pension risks into the country-specific recommendations, starting from the 2026 European Semester cycle; encourages the Member States to explore fiscally responsible and work-oriented solutions that support caregivers’ return to the labour market, provide information on accessing public and private pension savings, and strengthen family and community-based support systems; calls on the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, to place strong emphasis on the economic empowerment of pensioners and to assess the possible proposal of minimum EU standards for care credits that would enable caregiving years to count towards pension entitlements; calls on the Member States to ensure that the implementation of the Council Recommendation on minimum income is gender-responsive and aimed at supporting the needs of women living in poverty, to give them financial freedom, independence and opportunities;

44. Recognises the role that automatic enrolment into occupational pension schemes can play in encouraging more participation by women in retirement savings, helping to mitigate the gender pension gap and supporting long-term financial security; notes that the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority supports the use of pension dashboards, tracking tools to monitor effectively the gender pay and pension gaps, and gender-neutral remuneration policies and practices in occupational pensions; calls on the Member States to promote non-discriminatory access to supplementary and occupational pension schemes for all workers, including part-time workers;