Every year on March 1, companies with more than 50 employees must calculate and publish their gender equality index.
How the index works
The index helps advance pay equality within companies by objectively measuring the pay gap between women and men, highlighting areas for improvement.
It is evaluated with 100 points, and is measured using 4 to 5 indicators depending on whether the company has fewer or more than 250 employees.
The results are improving
The results of the index have been constantly improving since its implementation in 2019, which is a testament to the real effectiveness of the system, its good adoption by companies and its ability to change practice.
In 2023, 72% of the companies concerned published their rating as of March 1, a share that has increased significantly compared to previous years (61% in 2022 and 2021 and 54% in 2020).
Also, for 2023, the results are improving: the average score published by companies increases to 88/100 in 2023, compared to 86/100 in 2022.
The average score for companies with more than 1,000 employees increased by about 7 points between 2019 (82.9) and 2023 (89.7).
However, these encouraging results should not mask the efforts that need to be continued:
- 2% of companies have a score of 100;
- To date, 77 companies have a score below 75 points as of 2020.
They could be subject to sanctions in 2023.
Quota representation among senior managers
Furthermore, in order to accelerate the participation of women in economic and professional life, the law of December 24, 2021, aimed at accelerating economic and professional equality, established the quota of representation of women and men among senior managers and members of administrative bodies of companies with more than 1,000 employees.
Therefore, these companies are obliged to publish on their websites every year on March 1 every year all deficiencies in the representation of women and men among, on the one hand, senior managers and, on the other hand, members of administrative bodies.
These companies will have to achieve an intermediate level of 30% of people of both sexes among senior executives and members of governing bodies by March 1, 2026 and a final target of 40% by March 1, 2029, under threat of financial penalty.
As of March 1, 2023, 49% of companies have published their results.
