Women s economic empowerment A global human rights issue

Transcription

1 Eidgenössisches Departement des Innern EDI Eidg. Büro für die Gleichstellung von Frau und Mann EBG Women s economic empowerment A global human rights issue NGO-CSW Forum on the Economic Empowerment of Women and Girls in a Sustainable Perspective Geneva

2 Women s economic empowerment Women s economic empowerment is essential to achieve human rights. Economic empowerment is not only about economy, it is about dignity, autonomy and self-determination. It has to do with the capacity to represent ones own interests in a responsible and self-determined way, acting one s own authority. It has to do with human rights and in the same time with well-being, in an individual perspective but also in a collective perspective. When governments, businesses and communities work to eliminate inequalities, countries are less likely to be plagued by poverty and insecurity. 2

3 Some thoughts about Bern, Switzerland, March ,000 people from across Switzerland took part in demonstration outside the parliament calling on the government to implement equal pay principles 1) Legal situation 2) A few facts and figures 3) Examples of measures and tools 4) Strong political will 5) Continuous personal commitment 3

4 Swiss Federal Constitution of 18 April 1999 (a1981) Art. 8 Equality before the law 3 Men and women shall have equal rights. The law shall ensure their equality, both in law and in practice, most particularly in the family, in education, and in the workplace. Men and women shall have the right to equal pay for work of equal value. 4

5 Federal Act on Gender Equality (Gender Equality Act, GEA) of 24 March 1995 Art. 3 Prohibition of discrimination 1. Employees must not be discriminated against on the basis of their sex, whether directly or indirectly, including on the basis of their marital status, their family situation or, in the case of female employees, of pregnancy. 2. This prohibition applies in particular to hiring, allocation of duties, setting of working conditions, pay, basic and advanced training, promotion and dismissal. 5

6 GPG Gender Pay Gap a multi-factor issue Man Standar dized wage differ ence Woman «Discrimination and other unexplained factors» ~40% of pay gap (wording drawn from ILO: Global Wage Report 2014/15: 45) C. Further objective factors B. Job-related factors A. Individual factors Differences explained by objective factors (A-B-C) ~60% of pay gap A: Level of education, years of service, potential professional experience B: Professional position, skill level C: Night work, shift work, sector, region etc. 6

7 Multi-factor issue, different answers Society shall fight against stereotypes in the public space, at schools; organise and finance good and affordable day care facilities for children. Public authorities shall adopt gender equality policies and implement them. Companies shall hire and promote women in all sectors and at all levels, pay equal wages, develop family friendly policies. Individuals Women and men have to be conscious of their own barriers; Women shall know their rights and fight for them; Men shall engage for women s rights, take their share in the housework, etc. 7

8 Tools and programs to eliminate gender pay discrimination LOGIB ( Logib is a swiss self-analysis tool. It has arosen considerable interest in other countries and EU (equal-pace.eu) Engagement Pay Equity Tripartite agreement between the employer and employee associations and the governement to encourage as many companies as possible to voluntarily check their pay conditions Labels (equal salary, Edge, etc.) Certifications, which give companies the opportunity to prove that, in particular salary wise, they offer equal opportunities to women and men Controls in relation with public procurements Controls can be made to verify that companies which receive mandates from public authorities comply with the requirement of equal pay for men and women 8

9 Full implementation of existing policies Equal pay and public procurement in Switzerland Art. 8, para 1, c, Federal Act on Public Procurement (FAPP) The following principles shall be respected in awarding public contracts: c. Contracts shall only be awarded to suppliers that guarantee equal treatment of men and women in respect of pay for workers performing services in Switzerland. Art. 6, para 4, Ordinance on Public Procurement The awarding authority may call for checks in respect of equal treatment of women and men. The task of conducting such checks may be assigned to federal, cantonal or local authority gender equality offices. 9

10 Volume of public procurement General government procurement + State owned utilities Switzerland : central government (2015) Companies involved: Financial volume: 5.5 (billion CHF) Public procurement accounts for a large slice of economic activity in most countries. 10 Statlink:

11 Equal pay and public procurement Monitoring procedure 1) Random samples taken from the Swiss Commercial Gazette; 2) Contract obtained from the public procurement body; 3) Individual pay data for all employees obtained from company; 4) Data editing (checks for errors) by two specialists and analysis with Logib; 5) Information of the company on details of the results; 6) Corrective measures are taken where necessary; 7) Public procurement body and Swiss Federal Procurement Commission are informed of the final result; 8) Change or sanction imposed where necessary. 11

12 The self-test tool Logib 1) Autonomy: Logib can be downloaded anonymously and free of charge - employers themselves can check their wage practice and see whether they comply with the requirement of equal pay for women and men (online tutorials, detailed instructions and a helpline are available); 2) Cost-efficiency: no need of any sophisticated statistics programme or specialised know-how Logib is based on Excel and thus directly applicable on a lot of workplaces without extra training for the personnel; 3) Feasibility: only standard data needed (those required in official payroll statistics) no need of women and men in every position with exactly the same qualifications to evaluate wage equality suitable for all businesses with at least 50 employees; 4) Reliability: Logib relies on a solid scientific method accepted by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court in 2003 (OLS regression analysis); 5) Transparency: the Logib tool and all technical details about the method used as well as instructions are publicly available in German, French, Italian and English; 6) Established international practice: Germany, France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Finland, Poland and Portugal made available a similar tool ( 12

13 Need of strong political will Charter for equal pay in the public sector Representatives of the Confederation, 10 cantons and 17 communes signed the agreement, which concerns public administration bodies and companies engaged by the public sector. Signatories agree to carry out regular checks to ensure that salary equality is respected, and to encourage other companies to do the same. They also agree to participate in salary monitoring carried out by the Federal Office for Gender Equality. September

14 Switzerland On the way to new policies Companies understand On the way to new compulsory measures in Switzerland - On 18 November 2015, the Swiss Federal Council submitted a legislative proposal obliging companies with 50 and more employees to carry out a self-test every four years. - Results of a representative survey (part of regulatory impact assessment): - strong interest in the topic: answers / response rate of 48% - around 65% of companies think government measures aimed at the enforcement of pay equality make sense - the administrative effort for a self-test with Logib has to be kept limited - Self-tests are effective: 50% of companies that carried out a self-test made adjustments, usually raising women s wages 14

15 UK On the way to new policies Companies understand Implementation of section 78 of the Equality Act 2010 which concerns the mandatory gender pay gap reporting New rules on pay transparency for companies with more than 250 employees More information: datory-gender-pay-gap-reporting 15

16 Germany New legislation Employees at businesses with more than 200 staff will have a right to see anonymised data on the wages of men and women in comparable positions. Companies with more than 500 employees will be asked to carry out checks and publish reports on gender pay parity every five years. In order to establish a system of comparing professional roles across a variety of sectors, Germany will introduce a points-based system that breaks down wages into separate parts. The regulations will apply to about 14 million workers in Germany, including those in the public sector 16

17 US Companies under pressure to report about GPG 12 March

18 Canada Universities reporting about GPG In June 2015, an unusual letter landed in Karen Bird s mailbox. It was from her employer, informing her of a salary bump of $3,515. It wasn t a bonus or a clerical error. Her employer, McMaster University, gave its entire female faculty a raise in base pay after a study uncovered a salary gap between male and female faculty members. These discrepancies remained even after accounting for differences in rank, department and experience. Published Friday, Oct. 09,

19 Let s honour our pioneers sewing machinists in Dagenham who made possible the Equal Pay Act in the United Kingdom in Lilly Ledbetter who sued a major company for paying her significantly less than her male counterparts and made possible the Fair Pay Act in the US Malika Kurtovic, female machinist, one of the first women in Switzerland who went to court on the ground of wage discrimination; The energy of all these pioneers, from all over the world, their courage, their determination should inspire us today and tomorrow, so long as we haven t achieved de facto gender equality. 19

20 Thank you for your attention For more informations: 20