Equal pay: The Confederation extends its Logib analysis tool to smaller companies
Bern, 14.06.2021 - With immediate effect, the Confederation is extending the use of an online equal pay analysis tool to smaller companies and organisations free of charge. Logib Module 2 allows employers with fewer than 50 employees to easily and independently check their pay practices. In this way, the Confederation is creating a basis for all Swiss employers to implement the constitutional right to equal pay for work of equal value.
In addition to the equal pay analysis tool for employers with 50 or more employees (Logib Module 1), a free web tool for smaller companies and organisations, Logib Module 2, is now available at www.logib.ch. Using Logib Module 2, Swiss SMEs with fewer than 50 employees can now also carry out an equal pay analysis. This increases the number of Swiss employers who can carry out an equal pay analysis using Logib from 10,000 to around 200,000. The seven-step application guides users to the analysis result and does not require any specific expertise.
2030 Gender Equality Strategy measure
The elimination of pay discrimination is of great importance to the Federal Council. This is a central goal of the 2030 Gender Equality Strategy adopted by the government in the spring. The introduction of Logib Module 2 is one of the priority measures mentioned in the strategy to achieve this goal. This measure also meets a requirement of the Gender Equality Act (GEA): Article 13c states that “the Confederation shall provide all employers with a standard analysis tool free of charge”. The Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) set up by the ILO, UN Women and the OECD, has awarded Logib Module 2 its ‘Good Practice’ label.
Statistics show that the pay gap still exists
Employers in Switzerland are required to ensure their employees are paid equally. Women and men have been entitled to equal pay for work of equal value under the Federal Constitution for 40 years. Nevertheless, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office’s latest earnings structure survey (ESS 2018) the average unexplained pay gap between women and men is 8.1% (ESS 2016: 7.7%). This equates to an average of CHF 686 per month less for women. The ESS 2018 also showed that the unexplained pay gap is above average in smaller companies.
Efforts to achieve equal pay in the private and public sector
Logib Module 2 also boosts public sector efforts to combat pay inequality: communes and state-related companies with fewer than 50 employees are invited to conduct equal pay analyses. This has been met with growing interest: 16 cantons, 113 communes and 63 state-related companies have signed the federal charter for equal pay in the public sector.
Under last year’s revised Gender Equality Act, employers with 100 or more employees must conduct an equal pay analysis by the end of June 2021. This must be audited by an independent body by the end of June 2022 and the employer must inform employees and shareholders of the results by the end of June 2023 at the latest.Address for enquiries
Federal Office for Gender Equality
Schwarztorstrasse 51
3003 Bern
Publisher
Federal Office for Gender Equality
https://www.ebg.admin.ch/en
Federal Department of Home Affairs
http://www.edi.admin.ch
