Study on non-legislative initiatives for companies to promote gender ...

68 Gender equality initiatives
area 3 – gender equality
• assure equal pay and equal definitions of functions;
• adapt the working conditions to ensure work-life balance
Engaging in the labelling process implies an effective and continuing investment into all
these components. A success factor of the Belgian Equality Diversity Label is that the
process is carried out in several phases that allow for concise planning and adaptations
within the course of action where necessary.
Labels with special focus
One example for a label focussing on one area identified as being crucial with regard to
gender equality 25 has been launched in Switzerland 26 and is currently in the pilot phase
(until the end of 2009). It aims to be applicable to any organisation around the world.
“equal salary - Zertifikation der Lohngleichheit von Frauen und Männern”
(Certification of wage equality between women and men) provides an easy, practical
and recognised analytical tool, which allows companies to promote their fair wage
policy while encouraging them to test their equal compensation policies in total confidentiality.
It is addressed to companies and organisations with a minimum of 50
employees and a minimum of 10 women.
The certification process is divided in two phases:
• Phase I: Salary evaluation by OUE (Observatoire universitaire de l’emploi) –
University of Geneva
A statistical analysis of the company’s salary data is conducted in order to
measure whether the wage policy of the company is fair and equitable on the
basis of a so-called wage equation. The wage level of each employee can be
statistically explained taking into account all those specific characteristics of the
employee that are relevant in the company’s salary policy such as, for example,
education, experience, seniority, function etc. If there is still wage discrimination
despite taking in all the relevant variables, it can be concluded that there is a
wage discrimination based on sex.
Subsequently, an “in-depth evaluation” provides the company with specific
suggestions to improve its salary structure.
Once the analysis is done, OUE submits a report on the results. If the difference
between the salary of men and women is smaller than 5 %, the certification
process can proceed. If not, the company can improve its salary policy in order
to apply for certification at a later stage.
25
26
See e.g. European Commission (2007): Tackling the pay gap between women and men. COM (2007)
424
Switzerland is not within the scope of this study but this initiative seemed to be of high relevance.
Therefore, the initiative was analysed in-depth as a case study, but is not included in the list of
initiatives in annex 1.