UAE’s Council of Ministers approves gender equality law

The UAE’s Council of Ministers has adopted a draft law designed to guarantee equal pay and wages for men and women.

The adoption of the legislation was confirmed by state news agency WAM.

UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Dubai Ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was quoted as saying the law was intended to ensure equal pay between the sexes as a constitutional right.

“Our constitution is one of equal rights and duties between the sexes and we seek to elaborate, enforce and guarantee this constitutional right through the new law,” he said.

#محمد_بن_راشد: دستورنا ضمن حقوق وواجبات متكافئة بين الجنسين ونسعى لتفصيل وإنفاذ وضمان هذا الحق الدستوري من خلال القانون الجديد.#وام

— وكالة أنباء الإمارات (@wamnews) April 10, 2018

The UAE has made gender equality a key development goal.

Among its aims are to become one of the top 25 countries in the world for gender equality by 2021 – aided by initiatives launches in recent years such as the UAE Gender Balance Council and the UAE Gender Inequality Index.

Read: Closing the Gulf’s gender gap

In the most recent report measuring gender equality by the World Economic Forum (WEF) the country held the highest ranking in the GCC, climbing from 124th to 120th, after seeing notable improvement for gender parity in ministerial positions and wage equality for similar work.

It also came near to fully closing its gender gap on the educational attainment subindex.

However, the country and its Gulf peers still remained significantly behind report leaders Iceland and Norway in the global ranking.

Read: UAE, Bahrain, Saudi rise, Kuwait, Qatar fall in gender equality ranking