France will penalise companies that pay women less

[OhioChick]

Source: Reuters

12 Sep, 2010, 06.43PM IST,REUTERS

PARIS: The French government said on Sunday a planned pension reform would penalise companies which pay their female employees less than their male peers, as it steps up a campaign to defend the controversial overhaul. Labour Minister Eric Woerth, the architect of the reform which prompted a national strike earlier this week, rejected criticism that it discriminated against women by forcing them to work longer than male counterparts to gain the necessary years of social security payments.

He said the reform would compensate women who took maternity leave with two year of additional pension payments. "The problem is not the length of payments as far as women are concerned, the problem is salaries: the wages of women are lower than those men who do the same job," Woerth told Europe 1 radio. "That is an insult to democracy and our social model."

"In the text (of this reform), we have decided to fine companies which differentiate between the salaries of men and women by up to 1 percent of their payroll," the minister said. Woerth said unions and the opposition Socialist party were deluding voters by saying a planned increase in the minimum retirement age to 62 from 60 could be avoided. The government has said that without an increase in the retirement age, France's pension system will lose 45 billion euros ($57.1 billion) a year by 2020.


Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/France-will-penalise-companies-that-pay-women-less/articleshow/6541501.cms

[gateley]

1. I'm moving! Can you imagine that? Isn't France the country about which is

said they're afraid of the workers, instead of the other way around?

[midnight]

2. Right on! The French see equal value in women's work.

[crim son]

3. I wonder if we will ever see anything like that here.

Equitable pay, I mean.

[Lance_Boyle]

4. Why should there be 'additional compensation' for women who take maternity leave?

"the reform would compensate women who took maternity leave with two year of additional pension payments."

Maternity leave *IS* the compensation - you get to spawn and keep your job. Why in the world should France or anyone else be paying people MORE to reproduce?

[The2ndWheel]

5. Everything we do requires more people doing more things

Every institution we've built or created needs more people to sustain them. It's really the basic foundation of society. The younger the better.

[pampango]

6. May be an effort to make raising the retirement age more palatable, but enforcing pay equity

is a great goal. Hopefully, this part of the pension reform takes place and not the increase in the retirement age. Good for France.