German Employers Now Have to Tell Employees What Their Colleagues Make

German Employers Now Have to Tell Employees What Their Colleagues Make Just afterIceland became the first countryin the world to make it illegal topay men more than women, other countries are following suit with their own legislations. In Iceland, women earn 19 percent less than their male colleagues but the new law, which went into effect on New Years Day, covers about 150,000 workers from about 1,200 companies that will be required to publish theirwage scales. The measure intends to close thepay gapby 2022.Now in Germany, the Act to Promote Transparency of Pay Structure the mostsignficantstipulation of an act topromote equal pay, which passed the parliament last year is coming into effect on Saturday.Information regarding peers salaries has leid typically been available to most employees across Germany, and most people keep mum about the numbers on their paychecks. But this act will help employees better understand whether or not theyre being paid fairly by entitling them to this empowering information. Their bosses will legally have to divulge what their coworkers in the same job description category take home within three months upon request.That said, there are loopholes and exceptions. For example, companies with fewer than 200 people dont have to abide by the law, since legislators reasoned that itd cause them too much bureaucratic hassle. And in order for companies with more than 200 people to be required by law to share salary information, the company must employ at least six people of the opposite sex with the same job description only then are employees entitled to request information about their other five coworkers. Still, however, they wont be given specifics just the zentralwert wage or salary for their peer group.Of course, knowing the median salary doesnt necessarily give you any answers either. Your specific salary might align with the median, but a coworker might totenstill earn a lot more than you it just doesnt seem that way whenall of yoursalaries are factored into the equation. For example, if five of the peers earn $50,000 each and one earns $55,000, the median is still just over $50,000, so you might assume youre all earningjust about the same, but thats not the case. These numbers can be exacerbated depending on legitimate incomes, too.Regardless of the numbes, the new German law only enforces employers to share the information it doesnt oblige employers to rectify your situation should you discover that youre indeed being paid unfairly. Of course, anti-discrimination laws give you the choice to file a claim, and you might just feel evermore emboldened to do so.Though there are caveats, because transparency is power, this is nonetheless a small mercy for working women in Germany. We hope that the United States, where women still earn just82 cents for every male dollar, also makes moves to ebb thegender pay gapthats plagued our workplaces for far too long.--AnnaMarie Houlis is a multimedia journalist and an ad venture aficionado with a keen cultural curiosity and an affinity for solotravel. Shes an editor by day and a travel blogger at HerReport.org by night.