France fines two companies in equal pay for women drive

Two French companies have been fined for failing to observe France’s equal pay law as part of a threatened crackdown on businesses not paying their female employees as much as their male colleagues.

RFI

To mark Equal Pay Day on Thursday women’s rights minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem made good on her promise to crack down on companies that do not respect pay equality.

Both the companies that concerned have fewer than 200 employees and had previously been warned that they would be punished if they did not improve the gender balance in their pay scales.

One, which was found to be paying female employees an average of 500 euros less than their male counterparts, will be fined 5,000 euros every month until it has conformed to legal equal-pay requirements.

The other is to be fined 8,500 euros for failing to provide the required documentation.

Women in the private sector in France earn on average 28 per cent less than men

This is due to the fact that women more often work part time and take maternity leave, Noam Leandri, the president of the French Observatory of Inequalities, told RFI.

Although fines can be effective inside companies, they may not compensate overall salary disparities and that France needs to overhaul its work culture, for both women and men, he said.