Companies Should Be Audited To Ensure Equal Pay Between Maltese Men And Woman, Equality Minister Proposes
Malta’s Minister for Equality Edward Zammit Lewis has expressed his support for proposed plans that could shed light on wage differences between men and women in Malta and around Europe.
The European Commission’s recent ‘Pay Transperancy’ recommendations include targeted measures that would make companies report how much they are paying their employees.
The reports could be used to see if any differences are found in the pay procedures within companies, and one measure includes companies being independently audited to see just how large a pay gap exists between men and women in each company.
So far, a number of European countries such as Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Finland have been early adopters in the rolling out of the measures.
Il-Ministru l-ġdid tal-Ugwaljanza jgħid mal-gazzetta ILLUM li se jkun qed jimbutta l-‘Pay Transaprency’, imma l-MEA, l-GRTU u l-Kamra tal-Kummerċ ma jaqblux li dan isir @ZammitLewisEdw
? https://t.co/dhUxyQYXU9… pic.twitter.com/HZwJnfRThy
— Dalton Mangion (@DaltonMangion) September 8, 2019
Zammit Lewis’ support for the EU proposal has been praised by the Consultative Council for Women’s Rights, who issued a statement today.
“Workers have the right to request detailed information on pay, while employers should be obliged to report regularly on pay policies and practices,” they said. “Transparency is however not enough to ensure the elimination of bias against women and the implementation of equal pay. This needs to be accompanied by pay audits carried out at a national or sectoral level. Pay audits from companies lead to detailed, disaggregated information which can be scrutinized by trade unions so that any discriminatory practices can be tackled.”
“A transparent pay system is one where the workers understand their rate of pay and the components of their individual pay packets. It will help improve the efficiency of labour markets since employees will not only be informed of what is expected of them, but also what they will be getting in return. Incentives such as the Equality Mark are taken up by some companies, but not the majority, which means that women and other marginalized workers are still being exposed to arbitrary and often discriminatory pay practices,” they ended.
The Consultative Council for Women’s Rights consists of over 20 non-governmental organizations, and their remit is to advise the Minister for European Affairs and Equality on policy and legislative changes.
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