New gender pay rules in Spain

The Spanish government and the country’s two main union confederations, CCOO and UGT, have agreed new rules on the gender pay information employers must provide.

In future, all companies will have to maintain a pay register with information on all aspects of pay, broken down by sex. Companies with 50 employees or more will have to carry out a pay audit every one to three years, depending on size, which must also include a plan to eliminate pay differences between the sexes.

The new rules also require equality plans, already obligatory for some companies, to be “negotiated”. This element is one reason why the rules were not agreed by the main employer associations.