The National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE) has launched a set of initiatives to address the gender gaps that hinder women’s economic independence over their lifespan.

The two-year project Prepare the Ground for Economic Independence (PGEI) will be used to raise awareness on the gendered patterns in education, supporting women to remain in quality employment and strengthening equal economic independence.

The NCPE will also enhance the Equality Mark, which is awarded to companies/organisations that make gender equality one of their core values, by developing a tool for the auditing of equal pay.

In order to disseminate further information with different stakeholders, NCPE will launch information campaigns on the gender pay gap and on gender pension gap respectively, and will carry out consultation sessions with union representatives on equal pay for women and men.

A train-the-trainers course will be delivered to career advisors, career guidance teachers and guidance teachers to empower young students to make wise choices in school subjects.

The project will include two research studies on successful European Equal Pay tools in order to develop a similar tool that is suitable for Malta’s labour market and tailor-made for the Equality Mark certification process; and another on how European trade unions address the monitoring of equal pay for women and men during collective agreement negotiations in order to share this knowledge with local trade unions.

The project, Preparing the Grounds for Economic Independence, is co-financed by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme 2014-2020.