Legislative committee approves bill for gender salary equality
According to the bill, employers who employ over 100 employees will be forced by law to publish an annual report detailing the differences in salary between women and men in the organization.
By TOBIAS SIEGALIllustrative photo of Israeli money(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
The Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved on Sunday a bill presented by MK Eti Atia from Likud, that will help to equalize the salary of men and women in Israel, according to a press release by the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO).According to the bill, employers who employ over 100 workers will be forced by law to publish an annual report detailing the differences in salary between women and men in the organization. The ultimate purpose will be creating a mechanism of improving and equalizing the salaries of men and women in the Israeli market.Equal pay is a heated topic that has been widely discussed in Israel as well as in other OECD countries for many years. For 2019, the situation in Israel is relatively poor as its placed fourth from the bottom, with an average gap of 32% between the amount that men and women get paid.While there is a law in Israel from 1964 that requires equal gender pay (re-drafted in 1996), it is widely ignored and considered by many insignificant, as most women don't use it for demanding their rights. The biggest problem in the original law is that it requires action on behalf of the employee, during her time of employment, which puts her through a long and complex process that may harm her in other ways.According to the press release by WIZO, the organization that drafted the new bill, the publication of this information will help inspect employers who don't pay equally, while being public information available to potential customers and potential employees."Women in Israel have the right for equal salary," Atia said. "I have no doubt that the transparency achieved in publishing the salary of employees... will force organizations to equalize the salaries of women and men and to end the harsh discrimination."The MK explained during the preliminary discussions in the legislative committee that the budget cost for the proposed bill is not so high considering that large enterprises, which the bill targets, already produce annual salary reports, meaning they already have the information.The important aspect added by the bill is the employer's obligation to add a reference to employees' gender in relation to their salary, which requires minimal effort and resources, Atia explained.It should be mentioned that today, if a woman demands to equalize her salary to that of other employees in her working place, she has to ask her employer to receive data on their salaries and then to submit a claim to the labor court, a process that can take a few months.WIZO Israel Chairperson Ora Korazim expressed her gratitude, saying that "this is a major milestone in the just struggle for reducing gender gaps in the labor market and for advancing equality in all fields of life."
