Solicitud directa (CEACR) - Adopción: 2024, Publicación: 113ª reunión CIT (2025)

Convenio sobre igualdad de remuneración, 1951 (núm. 100) - Suiza (Ratificación : 1972)

The Committee notes the observations of Travail. Suisse, communicated with the Government’s report.

Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Gender pay gaps and their causes. The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that gender wage gaps have gradually decreased in both the private and public sectors, and that an assessment of wages in the federal administration has shown that equal pay for women and men was guaranteed. According to the Federal Office for Statistics (OFS), gender wage gaps fell from 21.3 per cent in 2012 to 19.5 per cent in 2020 in the private sector, and from 16.7 per cent in 2016 to 15.1 per cent in 2020 in the public sector (Confederation, cantons and communes). The Government also indicates that Switzerland is continuing to study and address the existing wage gap and differentials, including their unexplained component, mainly through the Federal Office for Gender Equality (BFEG) and the OFS. It recalls that one of the objectives of the Equality Strategy 2030 is to eliminate wage discrimination in the public and private sectors, and that a number of measures are planned to that end. The Equality Strategy 2030 is supplemented by a plan of action, which is updated regularly, usually twice a year. In June 2024, the plan of action contained 285 measures, including 96 at federal level. To assess the progress made in implementing the Equality Strategy 2030, an interim review will be available in 2025 and adjustments made, if necessary. The BFEG has also established a committee to develop a wage equality charter in the public sector, raise its profile and expand the network of signatories. It supports the cantons and communes in introducing and conducting monitoring of wage equality in procurement and/or subsidies. Improvements have also been made to the Logib wage equality analysis tool: (1) In 2023, a new feature was added to the Logib online tool, enabling enterprises and organizations to establish independently a wage system based on objective, gender-neutral factors; and (2) The aim of this new feature is to make small and medium-sized enterprises in particular aware of the equal value of the functions performed within their enterprise, in order to take account of the principle of an equal wage for work of equal value.

The Committee also notes that, according to the OFS, the unexplained component of the wage differential continued to rise in 2020, both in the private sector (reaching 45.3 per cent, compared with 44.3 per cent in 2018) and in the public sector (46.7 per cent, compared with 37.2 per cent in 2018). In this regard, it recalls that the unexplained component of wage differentials relates to lower pay for women for work of equal value, to the undervaluation of women’s work in highly feminized occupations and enterprises, or to differences resulting from motherhood (ILO, Global Wage Report 2018/19, pages 68–85).

It also notes the information provided by Travail.Suisse indicating that: (1) the measures in the Equality Strategy 2030 plan of action relating to the vocational reintegration of women following care-related interruptions are allegedly devoid of content; and (2) following the redirection of financial assistance, more than half of the advisory services for women wishing to reintegrate into the workforce following care-related interruptions have been forced to close and have not been replaced by other public services.

In this respect, the Committee also notes that, in its concluding observations on Switzerland’s sixth periodic report, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) expressed concern at the persistence of gender-based wage discrimination, emphasizing in particular that women are concentrated in traditionally female-dominated, lower-paid occupations. CEDAW therefore recommended that the State party adopt a more effective system of analysing and addressing gender wage discrimination and increase the wages in traditionally female professions (CEDAW/C/CHE/CO/6, 1 November 2022, paragraphs 53 and 54). The Committee requests the Government to: (i) examine the reasons why the unexplained component of the gender wage differential continues to grow; and (ii) communicate the results of the interim review of the implementation of the Equality Strategy 2030 and, where appropriate, the adjustments made in regard to combating wage inequality and its underlying causes.

Measures to promote wage equality for work of equal value. Legislative developments. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes that the Government refers to: (1) the revision of the Ordinance on the organization of public procurement in the federal administration, in 2024, to strengthen the role of the BFEG in promoting equal wages in the context of public procurement; and (2) an interim assessment of the impact of the revision of the Federal Act on Equality between Men and Women (LEg), which introduced a requirement for employers with a staff of 100 or more workers to carry out a wage equality analysis, which should be available in 2025. The Committee notes in this regard that Travail.Suisse considers several aspects of the legislative revision to be negative, including in that: (1) employers who show that they respect wage equality are exempted from the requirement to continue to carry out regular analyses; (2) wage analysis is a requirement only for under 1 per cent of enterprises and less than half of persons employed; and (3) law enforcement is weak. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the findings of the interim assessment of the revision of the LEg and on any measures taken or envisaged following this assessment. It also requests the Government to indicate: (i) the number of cases in which a wage analysis carried out under the LEg has revealed discrimination based on sex in determining rates of remuneration; and (ii) the remedial actions taken when such cases have been identified.

Wage-fixing systems and collective agreements. The Committee recalls the important role that wage-fixing systems and collective agreements can play in the implementation of the principle established by the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the extent to which the principle of equal remuneration for men and women is applied by wage-fixing systems and in collective agreements in order to ensure that the rates fixed are free from gender bias and, in particular, that certain skills considered to be “female” are not undervalued.

Article 4. Cooperation with employers’ and workers’ organizations. The Government indicates that the BFEG regularly has formal and informal discussions with workers’ and employers’ organizations, for example as part of the review of the improvements introduced to the Logib, and intends to continue such discussions in the future. The Committee notes this information.