Press Release No. 09/2010 Equal Pay Day: IG Metall Calls for an Initiative to Enact an Equal Pay Act

Frankfurt am Main – IG Metall has called on the federal government to launch an initiative for legislation on equal pay to combat the lower pay women receive. “We finally need binding regulations to advance equal pay for women compared to men. Not only is the discrimination against women in pay a scandal, but so is the fact that hardly anything has changed in this regard in Germany for many years,” criticized Helga Schwitzer, executive board member of IG Metall, on Wednesday in Frankfurt on the occasion of the upcoming “Equal Pay Day.”
Politicians can no longer stand idly by but must create a legal framework for equal pay. Such a law must require companies to continuously review pay equity and make corrections as needed, Schwitzer demanded. “Effective legal frameworks for enforcing equal pay between women and men—which have long been standard practice in France, Canada, and Sweden—must also be possible in Germany.”
Attempts to further reduce women’s career opportunities and earning potential must be stopped, Schwitzer demanded. The union representative pointed to the plan to reduce the duration of vocational training to two years for office-based professions—such as commercial clerks and office communications specialists—in which three-quarters of the trainees are women. “This cut-rate training unreasonably devalues the work women do in commercial and administrative roles, and thus also paves the way for pay discrimination,” Schwitzer said.
By collecting signatures from works council members, trainers, and youth and apprenticeship representatives opposing the shortening of the training period, the DGB unions aim to call on the federal government to prevent the impending discrimination against women.

With an average pay gap between women and men of more than 23 percent, Germany ranks at the top of the list for pay inequality across Europe, alongside a few smaller countries. “Equal Pay Day” on March 26 marks the day by which women must work to earn, in mathematical terms, the same amount as men did in the previous year. This date will be observed for the third time this coming Friday.