The Salary Register as a tool for Compliance with the Principle of Equality as it is obligatory in companies.
It should be remembered that Royal Decree-Law 06/2019, published on 01 March 2019. It incorporates new rights for working people in terms of equal treatment and opportunities. Modifying some of the measures included in Organic Law 3/2007 of 22 March. With the aim of eliminating any discriminatory factor and giving effect to the principle of equal opportunities reflected in the aforementioned Organic Law.
Salary Register and Compliance with the Principle of Equality
Within the incorporated changes, arose the obligation for all companies to make a registration and salary control.
The rule is very clear, there can be no discrimination on the basis of sex. This forces companies to work on wage policies objectively. This prevents workers of different sexes who perform identical functions from receiving different salaries. It shall be understood that two employees perform the same functions when the nature of these functions, as well as the conditions required for their exercise, are equivalent.
However, article 28.1 of the Workers’ Statute makes the following statement: “The difference in remuneration shall be justified, without discrimination, if in the labour market salaries for a given job have been modified, so that the new incorporations have a lower salary than the veteran workers, who joined the company under other circumstances.
Salary Register.
To promote this equality, the law establishes as an obligation for all companies to keep a Wage Register. Broken down by sex and distributed by professional categories or jobs of equal value. Incorporating the average wages, salary supplements and extra-wage payments.
In addition, and in the case of companies with 50 or more employees, in which there are wage differences of one sex greater than 25% with respect to the other, they are obliged to issue a report justifying the reasons for such differences.
For this reason, it is vital to work on equal pay policies. And that the differences in order to be justified are given by objective concepts. Such as seniority, availability, displacement, specific function, languages, etc. That in any case they are justified and correctly argued.
Model
Since there is no official model, companies will comply with the standard by producing their own document. This should follow the patterns indicated above. That is, professional groups of equal value, differentiated by sex and indicating the annual average value of salaries, complements and extra-wage payments. These records must be updated each time there is a salary review. Or employees are incorporated with salaries different from the established average, which could affect the Salary Register.
Therefore, with the aim of consolidating equality in terms of remuneration, all companies, regardless of their size, will be obliged to keep a wage register. Indicating average wages broken down by sex.
Finally, in the event of non-compliance with the keeping of said Salary Register, the company will have committed an infraction classified as serious. Therefore, the amount of the sanction will oscillate between 626 and 6,250€. This sanction will be given by the graduation of the fault, according to the criteria established by law.
If you need assistance in the preparation of the Salary Register in your company, you can count on the experience of the experts of our Labour Consulting Dept.
Arrabe Integra
Labour Consulting and HR Management