Germany’s law on remuneration transparency (c.f. article No. 10143) that came into force in July 2017 sought to narrow the country’s gender pay gap, which at 21%, is one of the highest in Europe (the EU average is 16%). Driving this legislation is a requirement on employers to be completely transparent, with women able to compel them to align their salaries with those of their male counterparts. At the time the legislation was designed it faced a great deal of resistance across business and even within government. It also included a provision for a follow-up assessment after two years. This evaluation has now been completed and a few days ago the Ministry for Families, Seniors, Women, and Youths published the results of the review study that it commissioned a legal firm and a consultancy firm to carry out. According to this first official review very few have exercised their right to access remuneration information.
Poor progress towards achieving its objective. The report has found that since January 2018, the starting date for exercising the right to information, only 2% of employees have taken it up and asked for information on their colleagues’ remuneration. In total only 14% of private sector companies and 7% of public sector companies have had to act on such requests for information. The report also found that 45% of companies with more than 500 staff and 43% of those with between 200 and 500 staff h
…Do you have information to share with us?