Future Workplace
April 22, 2019, Zurich

Equal pay laws are changing at a rapid pace in Switzerland and abroad. In the face of growing calls from shareholders, customers and the public to address the unequal pay issue, senior leadership is increasingly demonstrating their commitment to equal pay in a public way. Time to deep dive into the what and the how of equal pay.

Due to the high relevance of this topic, PwC and Advance partnered to organize a Future Workplace session looking into three critical aspects:
– equal pay legislation in Switzerland and abroad
– corporate case studies demonstrating how companies are successfully dealing with it
– key challenges and recommendations for remedial actions

gender pay gap legislation reduces gap

The Global Gender Pay Compass published by PwC mid-2018 and updated in December 2018 shows that gender pay legislation reduces the gap in economic participation and opportunity three times faster, whereas the pay gap increases over time in countries without legislation. Globally, the pay gap between men and women carrying out equal work is approximately 20%, which widens to 45% for the top 1% of earners and varies from country to country (source: ILO 2016 Global Wage Report).

legislation in switzerland

The Swiss parliament passed the Amendment of Gender Equality Act (GEA) in 2018. It would oblige companies with at least 100 employees to conduct a pay equity analysis for that given year and repeat it every 4 years until gender pay equality is proven. The Act affects 0.85% of all companies and 45% of employees in Switzerland. The pay analysis under the GEA needs to be verified by an external auditor and the results need to be shared with employees (and with shareholders, if the company is listed). However, there are currently no sanctions in case of non-compliance.

Fair is attractive

Equal pay certification can increase an employer’s attractiveness on the talent market and positively impacts reputation. Many companies have already embarked on the journey to assure that men and women are compensated equally and fairly for their contributions. In this Future Workplace session, representatives from PwC, Gavi – The Vaccine Alliance, Dufry and Philip Morris International openly shared their practices & learnings along the way.

The workshop material is available for Advance Members in our Member Area under “Documents”.

Robust methodology required

The EQUAL-SALARY Foundation was the independent body certifying the above companies. PwC was audited by a third party and is now both certified and an official partner of the EQUAL-SALARY Foundation. The methodology provides companies with a robust way to tackle objective pay analysis. See more here: https://www.pwc.ch/en/services/people-organisation/equal-salary-certification.html. Advance is proud to see a growing number of its member companies being certified for equal pay.

cheers to All supporters!

A big thank you goes to Joop Smits & Sue Johnson from PwC, Catherine Pawlow from Gavi, Catherine West from Dufry, Melissa Whiting from Philip Morris International for insightful presentations and to Christina Yap and Irene Bellora from PwC for the fantastic organisation! Thank you also to all very engaged participants!

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