The European Parliament, meeting in plenary session, gave its green light, on Thursday 30 March, to the so-called ‘pay transparency’ directive (see EUROPE 13089/1) with 427 votes in favour, 79 against and 76 abstentions.
Samira Rafaela (Renew Europe, Dutch) and Kira Peter-Hansen (Greens/EFA, Danish), co-rapporteurs, welcomed a “huge achievement for gender equality”. By imposing pay transparency obligations on companies, the text aims to reduce the gender pay gap, which is stagnating at 13% in the EU.
“If we had left it up to the markets, the gender pay gap would only correct itself by 2086”, Ms Rafaela said, criticising opponents of the text who hide “behind hollow words such as ‘gender ideology’ or ‘administrative burden’”.
All political groups supported the text, with the exception of the ECR and ID. The ECR’s motion to reject was largely voted down.
New rules
The compromise reached with the EU Council at the end of 2022 (see EUROPE 13085/12) obliges all companies to communicate with employees on average earnings, broken down by gender, for a similar position. Furthermore, employers will not be able to ask for the salary history of future applicants.
Employers with at least 100 employees will have to publish their pay gap. A 5% deviation will be tolerated and Member States will have to provide for sanctions against those who break the rules.
In discrimination claims, the burden of proof will be on the employer and victims will be able to receive compensation. The existence of multiple (intersectional) discrimination will be an aggravating factor.
Finally, for the first time, EU legislation will refer to ‘non-binary people’ (people who do not identify with a defined sex or gender).
While the transposition period has been extended to three years, “this longer period [...] should not be seen as a precedent. It only aims at ensuring that employers will have non-discriminatory pay structures in place, so as to ensure full application of the new rules at the time of transposition”, stressed the Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli.
The EU Council must now formally approve the agreement for it to be adopted.
To read the compromise: https://aeur.eu/f/64k (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)