From July 2020, organizations with 100+ employees will have to prove they pay women and men fairly.
In December 2018, the Swiss Parliament has accepted the amendment to the Equality Act (LEg) which will come into force on July 1, 2020 in Switzerland.
This amendment states that organizations with more than 100 employees have to perform a statistical analysis of their wage bill.
This analysis must be carried out “according to a scientific method and in accordance with the law”, with the Confederation providing all employers with a free standard analysis tool;
The EQUAL-SALARY methodology is compliant with the requirements defined in the Equality Act.
The main elements of the new law are:
- employers with more than 100 employees will have to perform an internal pay equity analysis, which applies to both private and public employers;
- this analysis must be carried out “according to a scientific method and in accordance with the law”, with the Confederation providing all employers with a free standard analysis tool;
- organizations have to analyse salary data from July 2020 on. (1)
- this analysis must be verified by an independent body from July 2021,
- the result of this analysis should be communicated to employees for July 2022. For publicly-traded companies as well as for public sector employers, the result should be published;
- no penalty or obligation to correct an unequal situation is provided for in the bill.
(1) For certified organizations, the EQUAL-SALARY Foundation has written to the Federal Council asking to reconsider the validity period of salary data. Unfortunately, our request has not been granted. See below the exchange (in French only).
For more information about the amended LEg, please see the links below :
French : https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/fr/home/aktuell/news/2019/ref_2019-08-21.html
German : https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/de/home/aktuell/news/2019/ref_2019-08-21.html
Italian : https://www.bj.admin.ch/bj/it/home/aktuell/news/2019/ref_2019-08-21.html
