Gender Equality Plans in Spain

27/02/2020.- Gender Equality Plans in Spain: As readers may remember, Decree-Law 6/2019 (“on the urgent measures to guarantee equal treatment and opportunities for women and men in employment and occupation”) included new measures to promote equality between men and women in the workplace (it also included various provisions to gradually increase statutory paternity leave to 16 weeks by 2021). Mainly, the new regulation extended the existing obligation to implement a gender equality plans in Spain to companies with 50 or more employees (previously 250 or more employees).

Calendar: Employers subject to the equality plan obligation (i.e., those with 50 or more employees) should ensure their compliance over the three-year transitional period established by the abovementioned Decree-Law, according to the following calendar. The deadline to implement Gender Equality Plans in Spain may vary depending on the number of employees, as follows:

By March 7, 2020: companies with more than 150 employees

By March7, 2021: companies with more than 100 employees

By March 7, 2022: companies with 50 or more employees

Among other obligations, the above referred companies shall be required to develop wage registries showing average pay levels disaggregated by gender; and such registries have to be made available to the workers’ legal representatives for review. Employers must be aware that  any differences between average pay by gender of 25% or more shall be justified.

Failure to establish an equality plan can result in significant financial penalties for the employer.

We hope employers will find the above information useful. Said that, please do not forget that employers can benefit from working with a company experienced in all of the nuances of Spanish payroll. In this regard, Avantges team of committed professionals can help any organization handle the complexities of payroll in Spain, allowing them to focus on what they do best.