Companies will have to publish their index of professional equality between women and men.

The exercise is all the more difficult as it exposes the firms to symbolic and financial sanctions.

But the device seems to be gaining ground and could lead to an awareness of gender inequalities.

On Monday March 1, all companies with more than 50 employees must have published their index of professional equality between women and men.

These data must be published every year on the same date.

Large companies are starting to be familiar with this exercise, in place since 2019. For smaller companies, the obligation to publish the index is only one year old and the challenge is not always easy.

Indeed, SMEs generally do not have HRD and therefore have to do with the means at hand to record indicators and then calculate the index.

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To be in the nails, a company must obtain a final mark higher than 75 points out of 100. The index combines five criteria, each one yielding more or less points, according to the level reached in the company: the gap in remuneration between women and men at comparable post and age, the distribution of individual increases between women and men, the distribution of promotions, the number of women whose salary is increased on their return from maternity leave and finally the number of women among the ten highest salaries in the company.

450 training courses for 1,500 companies

To help SMEs familiarize themselves with this mechanism, the Ministry of Labor organized 450 training sessions all over France in which 1,500 companies participated.

"Today, we have fully understood how to calculate our index and we are sure to apply the method correctly", explains Olivier Laveau, HRD of the company Transvalor, specializing in the design of software for the advanced metallurgical industry, which attended these trainings.

"Our wish is to be well over 75 so that we do not have to monitor the index but that we can firmly anchor diversity in the company."

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This SME based at the Sophia Antipolis technology park near Nice has 75 employees, three quarters of whom are men.

The development of the index therefore appears to be a real challenge.

"One of the levers that we have identified is the homogenization of remuneration. And we had a lot of work on the sales department, so as to set up identical remuneration for all our sales staff", explains the HRD , who had to attend two half-day workshops last month.

He nevertheless explains that these measures enabled Transvalor to make a "fairly important good" and obtain a score of 75.

Awareness ?

With these workshops, the Ministry of Labor is putting the package on support and pedagogy.

But from March 1, 2022, companies that do not publish their index and those that get a bad rating will have some concerns.

As the index is public, the reputation of companies could suffer.

But the consequences could also be felt on their finances: staying three years in a row below 75 points exposes companies to a fine of up to 1% of their payroll.

Labor inspectors are particularly vigilant on this subject and carried out 8,000 checks last year.

They are thus putting pressure on lagging companies to correct things.

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The fear of the gendarme will undoubtedly play a role, but awareness of the management of companies could take place.

Indeed, several studies have shown that there is a correlation between gender diversity and the economic performance of companies.

"A company that is capable of identifying female talents, of recruiting them, of opening up prospects for them, of not capturing their development, it is by definition a company that is more efficient because it is in a position to win. the war for talent, ”explains Dunya Bouhacene, president of Women Equity, an investment company dedicated to financing SMEs led by women.