MEPs want stricter rules against gender pay gap
Working women in the European Union earn on average 14% less than men. The European Parliament’s committees for women rights and employments employees has sharpened proposals in a Pay Transparency Directive to get better tools working for equal pay.
The committees want companies with at least 50 employees to be fully transparent regarding salaries while the original proposal was to set the original proposal set the border at 250 employees.
To disclose information makes it easier for those working for the same employer to compare salaries and expose any existing gender pay gap within the organisation. Tools to assess and compare pay levels should be based on gender-neutral criteria and include gender-neutral job evaluation and classification systems, the committees said.
If the pay reporting shows a gender pay gap of at least 2.5% (versus 5% in the initial proposal), member states would need to ensure that employers, in cooperation with their workers’ representatives, conduct a joint pay assessment and develop a gender action plan, the committees said.
The Commission should create a dedicated official label to award to employers who do not have a gender pay gap in their companies, the MEPs added.
The text stipulates that workers and workers’ representatives should have the right to receive clear and complete information on individual and average pay levels, broken down by gender. MEPs also propose to prohibit pay secrecy, via measures forbidding contractual terms that restrict workers from disclosing information about their pay, or from seeking information about the same or other categories of workers’ pay.
MEPs uphold the Commission proposal regarding the shift of burden of proof. In cases where a worker feels that the principle of equal pay has not been applied and takes the case to court, national legislation should oblige the employer to prove that there has been no discrimination.
‘‘With this Directive, we are taking an important step towards gender equality, and shining a light on the problem of unequal pay. It is not only a strong signal stating that we will no longer accept gender-based pay discrimination, but it is also a toolbox to help member states and employers eliminate their gender pay gap in general’, said the employment committee’s rapporteur Kira Marie Peter-Hansen (Greens/EFA, DK).
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