College of Law

On the occasion of the International Day of Equal Pay and its Impact on the Promotion of Human Rights
Dr. Ziad Abdulwahab Al-Naimi
College of Law – University of Mosul
One of the fundamentals of the work of the international community today, including countries and public and specialized organizations, both global and even regional, is to achieve goals that ultimately lead to optimal and correct implementation in the short and long term. International practices and the resulting experiences focus on clear contributions to the field of human rights in general, with the objective development of the right through the evolution of its forms and the branching out of its types through successive technological, scientific, and humanitarian developments, accompanied by the ongoing work of the international community to confront these developments by protecting and guaranteeing the legal status of individuals without discrimination and on the basis of equality. Equality: Goal 5 of the 2030 Development Goals
When the United Nations set a set of development goals to be achieved by 2030, their ultimate goal was to protect human rights, including gender equality in its comprehensive, broadest, and most comprehensive sense, and within its general framework, with international agreements or national legislation that promote the achievement of this goal and others. This reinforces the concept by focusing on important aspects, such as equality in education, health, work, pay, and more. Therefore, the United Nations, commenting on the principle of equality as the fifth goal of development, emphasizes that “the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls is not only a fundamental human right but also a crucial factor in accelerating the achievement of sustainable development.” This firm affirmation includes equality in its absolute sense, including equal pay for men and women equally, without discrimination. International Equal Pay Day
September 18, 2025, falls on International Equal Pay Day, which represents an added value of international protection. The United Nations has sought to promote this day through two paths. The first is to explicitly refer to it through the General Assembly and to introduce the concept of equality in its general sense to represent an objective framework for all concepts of equality within the organization’s 2030 goals.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution No. 74/142 on December 18, 2019, at its (50)th session, emphasizing the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. It also affirmed that discrimination in all its forms, including discrimination between men, women, and girls, is therefore inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the two International Covenants of 1966, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women of 1979, the Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women of 1989, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women of 1989, and other international human rights instruments. Reaffirming the relevant Human Rights Council resolutions, it designated September 18 of each year as the International Day for Equal Pay, effective September 18, 2020, and called on all States, international organizations, civil society, and the private sector to celebrate this day in an appropriate manner.

The Legal Framework for the Concept of Equal Remuneration
Convention No. 100 concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value, adopted by the General Conference of the International Labour Organization on June 29, 1951, during its thirty-fourth session, and entered into force in 1953, constitutes a legal framework for the right to equal remuneration without discrimination based on gender.
Article 1(a) of the Convention defines remuneration as “the normal, basic or minimum wage or salary and all other remuneration paid by an employer, directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind, to a worker in consideration of his employment.”
Paragraph (b) of Article 1 clarifies the concept of equality with regard to the meaning of remuneration. It refers to “equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value” as wage rates determined without discrimination based on gender.
It is noteworthy that the term “wage” in its broadest sense was addressed by the Convention to prevent any form of specialization that would result in injustice to workers, regardless of their gender, in receiving wages, the forms of which are clearly defined in the Convention, without any ambiguity or interpretation.
Article 2 of the Convention obliges each Member of the International Labour Organization to work, by means consistent with its established methods for determining wage rates, to ensure that the principle of equal remuneration for men and women workers for work of equal value applies to all workers, and to ensure this application to the extent that it does not conflict with those methods.
The second paragraph of Article 2 of the Convention outlines the means for implementing Article 2 (first), through which this principle can be implemented by one of the following means: national laws or regulations of the Member State; any wage-fixing system established or adopted by law; collective agreements between employers or workers; or any combination of these means. This means that the agreement leaves the matter up to the state, and it grants it discretionary power, in accordance with the nature, specificities, and wages of each country. However, the minimum limit, as understood from Article 2, is that the limit for equality is agreed upon, but the mechanism for achieving equality is left to the member state to determine as it sees fit, whether in accordance with laws, regulations, or any special system that determines these wages or approves them later, or through collective agreements between employers and workers, or through a combination of the aforementioned means, as long as they achieve the principle of equality. The means are irrelevant, as what matters is achieving the result.
The agreement also clarifies the issue of objective job evaluation in Article 3, stating, “Measures shall be taken to encourage objective job evaluation on the basis of the work required, where such measures are likely to facilitate the application of this Convention.”
This means that member states are obligated to take measures that encourage objective job evaluations based on the work required, which helps implement the agreement. The second paragraph of Article 3 outlines the methods of determining wage rates, either through decisions taken by the competent authorities to determine wage rates, or through decisions agreed upon by the contracting parties when wage rates are determined by collective agreements.
The third paragraph of Article 3 also points out an important fundamental point: a difference in wages between the sexes does not constitute a violation of the principle of equality if the wage difference is based on wage rate differences, regardless of gender. Such differences are not considered discriminatory between the sexes as long as they are based on an objective basis, as it states: “It shall not be considered a violation of the principle of equal pay for male and female workers for work of equal value if there are differences in wage rates that correspond, without regard to gender, to differences in the work to be performed resulting from the aforementioned objective evaluation.”
Achieving equal pay, whether in all areas of life, represents an important contribution to achieving justice, eliminating discrimination, and strengthening the concept of gender equality. This provides support and reinforcement for the advancement of the economic and social reality of societies, positively impacting human rights with an unquestionable final outcome.