The new regulations have been introduced in a bid to tackle gender inequality in salaries, with the overall aim of increasing transparency in pay rates and equal pay for genders. It is now a legal requirement for businesses to collect and analyse the criteria used to determine the wage remuneration of employees to ensure jobs of equal value have the same salary.
The remuneration register should include the entire workforce of a business, including management personnel and senior manager. The register must contain in-depth salary information for each employee, showing separately the remuneration of men and women in the workforce.
The remuneration register should include the following data and it should be disaggregated by gender:
- Total annual salary and gender gap of this concept
- Annual base salary and gender gap for this concept
- Annual salary supplements and gender gap for this concept
- Extra-salary payments and gender gap for this concept
- Annual overtime and supplementary hours payments and gender gap of this concept
Businesses must also consider:
- Each of these data must be broken down by each professional group, professional category, level, job position or any other applicable classification system. The arithmetic average and median of what is received must also be established. That is, for jobs of equal value.
- The reference period shall be one calendar year unless there are substantial changes in any of the concepts. The first remuneration register that is required is for the year 2020.
- The legal representatives of the employees, if any, must be consulted 10 days prior to drawing up the register and before modifying it.
- In the event of any anomaly or malpractice in equal pay, the company must include in the document what measures it will apply to rectify these circumstances.
The register will be accessible by the Workers' Representatives. If they do not exist, any employee may request access to it. Although in this case, the information provided will be limited to the percentage differences in remuneration between men and women, which must be broken down according to the nature of the remuneration and classification. It must also be available to the Labour Inspection.
The absence of the register may give rise to administrative and judicial actions and/or the application of penalties for discrimination, which in the case of the most serious infringements, may result in penalties ranging from €6,251 to €187,515.
In addition, businesses with more than 100 employees must have an Equality Plan in place. As of 7th March 2022, it will also apply to businesses with more than 50 employees. The Equality Plan must include a Remuneration Audit that will require a job evaluation.
For more information on Spanish employment law, tax, payroll and much more, browse activpayroll’s Global Insight Guide to Spain.
