Today (8 March 2023) is International Women’s Day, and one of the key objectives of the day is to raise awareness about discrimination, including pay discrimination, and to help forge a gender equal world.
In Germany, pay equality between men and women is statistically not a reality. According to a survey conducted by the German Federal Statistical Office, women with comparable qualifications, jobs and employment histories earned, on average, 7% less per hour than their male colleagues in 2022. Due to absences caused by parental leave and part-time work, among other things, the pay gap is growing, resulting in a pay gap between men and women in Germany as high as 18% on average.
Despite the legal framework in place in Germany there has not been a flood of lawsuits to date. This could now change as a result of a recent decision of the Federal Labour Court, in which the court determined that negotiating skills in salary discussions do not constitute a reason to pay higher remuneration and may therefore be discriminatory.
