Spain to fine companies perpetuating chronic gender wage gap

MADRID (AP) — The Spanish government is moving to outlaw the wage gap between men and women, making mandatory for companies to disclose the salaries of their employees or face fines.

Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz has called the new regulations “historical.”

Socialist and far-left ministers in the Spanish coalition government on Tuesday passed two decrees detailing a law on gender equality at the workplace approved earlier this year. Under the new regulation, companies face a fine of 187,000 euros ($220,000) if they fail to disclose the system used to establish base salaries and other benefits for their employees.

According to the government, women in Spain earn on average 22% less than their male peers.

Another decree requires companies with more than 50 employees to file with the government their four-year plan to balance their workforce’s female to male ratio.

The decrees aim to “bring to the surface labor inequalities and give workers the tools to eliminate them,” according to Díaz.

Wage disparity, the minister told a press conference, “is a democratic aberration that excludes, differentiates and violates the rights of women.”