Tools to Reduce Gender Pay Gap

In the latest salary survey by the UK-based magazine ‘Financial Director’, analysts have discovered that the pay gap between male and female finance directors has widened over the past two years. Women are now earning 68 percent of the average remuneration package of their male counter-parts – two percent less than the numbers in 2008. Employment lawyers suggest that the root cause could be the result of women being more likely to take reduced working hours, a sabbatical or even a pay cut in order to contribute to the cost-reduction strategies of their employer.
The European Commission is currently supporting the development of tools for employers to close unjustified gender pay gaps. These tools include instruments designed to help identify if a company has a pay gap between its male and female employees. Available software calculates whether there is a gender pay gap and if this gender pay gap is due to objective factors (such as a person’s level of education or years of service) or factors that cannot be explained and which, for the most part, it can be assumed are caused by pay discrimination. Such tools have been developed in countries including Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland and are available online.

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