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Equal pay between women and men
In Switzerland, people still don't like to talk publicly about the pay for the work they do. However, the issue of equal pay for equal work has been discussed publicly for some time - and rightly so. In recent years, there have been various changes in Swiss laws to further promote this principle.
According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO), women earned around 17.8% less than men in 2018. This wage difference can have a variety of reasons. According to the BfS, around 55% of the wage difference, i.e. 9.7%, can be explained by observable characteristics such as different educational qualifications, professional experience or working in an industry with higher wages. However, the remaining 8.1% cannot be directly explained by a factor and could indicate unequal treatment.
On July 1, 2020, the revised Federal Gender Equality Act (GIG) came into force. This requires all companies with more than 100 employees to conduct an equal pay analysis. This analysis must then be verified by an external and accredited testing agency and the results communicated to the employees. In this way, at least the employees of larger companies receive partial transparency about their employer's wage system and have the right to know the results of the analysis.
The first experiences from the conducted reviews of equal pay analyses show a positive picture at first sight, as the majority of them do not show a statistically significant wage difference between women and men. In a few cases there is a difference, but it is within the tolerable bandwidth of +/- 5% according to the standard analysis tool "Logib" of the Federal Office for Gender Equality. These companies have no legal obligation, but at least a moral obligation to further optimize the wage system. So far, no analyses have been submitted to us for review that showed a significant wage difference and exceeded the tolerance threshold. Furthermore, differences in terms of age, experience, level of education and professional position, among other things, are permissible and are also made in practice. Equal pay does not always mean equal pay for equal work. Fair or unfair, is not to be discussed here. However, it is relevant to know this. Furthermore, the equal pay analysis does not have to be repeated under the condition that the tolerance value is adhered to, although the foundation for a periodic repetition was laid by the partially complex execution of the initial analysis. Moreover, it is at least doubtful whether a one-time implementation promotes the goal of equal pay in the long term. But it is certainly a step in the right direction.
If you have any questions in connection with the implementation and review of equal pay analyses, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Reto Käser
Partner, Head of Team Alternate
Swiss Certified Accountant
Master of Arts HSG in Accounting and Finance
T +41 31 329 20 53
rka@core-partner.ch