Technical assistance by the International Labour Organization for the promotion of equal pay in Germany

The gender wage gap in Germany embraces 22 percent, demonstrating that equal enumeration for men and women is still not realized in the German context. Against this background the coalition agreement of the current German Government between the Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) formulates the goal to strengthen the principle “equal pay for work of equal value”. By giving employees a legal right to be informed, the Federal Government aims to make the existing precept more effective. In order to promote equal pay for men and women, the Federal Government is planning new transparency regulations, according to which companies with 500 and more employees will have to report on pay differences and internal measures to promote the advancement of women in the future. Companies will also be called upon to apply obligatory procedures to eliminate pay discrimination and to involve the employees and their in-house representatives. Also, the coalition agreement explicitly formulates the creation of a tripartite initiative with the social partners to detect structural biases within collective wage agreements. The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany has now started with the process implementation of the coalition agreement. The corner-stones for an Equal Pay Act will be defined by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) this year. In this context the ILO Office Berlin has been asked by the BMFSFJ to support the conceptualization and implementation of the legislative project via technical cooperation. Because of the unique role of the ILO as a tripartite organization and its international expertise in regard to equal remuneration, the German Government attaches a significant importance to the partnership with the ILO. The aim is to improve the political acceptance of the legislative project among the social constituents in the German context by including the ILO as a moderator in the process.

Project symbol

DEU/15/01/DEU

Admin unit

RO-Europe and Central Asia

Start date

24/07/2015

End date

30/09/2016

Total allocation

82474

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

82474

Development Partners

Germany, Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth

Country/Countries

Germany

Outcomes

Protection of workers from unacceptable forms of work