What is the Gender Equality Index?

The Gender Equality Index is about companies of at least 50 employees. It measures the pay gap between women and men in order to reduce it gradually.

The companies concerned must calculate and publish this index, in a visible and legible manner, on their website before 1^er March.

This index, which measures employment equality between women and men on 100 points, is structured around five indicators:

• the gender pay gap (40 points);
• the difference in annual increases (20 points);
• the gap in promotions (15 points);
• increases on return from maternity leave (15 points);
• the share of women in the company's ten highest salaries (10 points).

Companies must also communicate details of the various indicators to the Social and Economic Committee (ESC) and the Labor Inspectorate (Dreets).

Those with a score of less than 75 points are required to take corrective action within three years to reduce this gender gap.

What information does the company provide to the Ministry of Labor?

A decree of August 17, 2022, specified what information the companies concerned must transmit to the Ministry of Labor via the website Egapro.

The elements to be transmitted vary according to the size of the company. Thus, companies having more than 250 employees do not have the same amount of information to be transmitted to the Ministry of Labor as that containing between 50 and 250 employees. For more information, please visit the related factsheet Index of professional equality.

Regardless of the size of the company, the information to be transmitted in the 2 cases are:

• the scope for calculating and publishing the indicators. The information to be transmitted changes according to the chosen scope: company or economic and social unit (grouping together in one unit of several distinct companies with close links);
• the 12-month reference period and the number of employees used for the calculation of the indicators;
• the arrangements for publishing the results obtained for each indicator and the level of results obtained;
• the results of the indicator measuring the gender pay gap (the information to be transmitted varies according to the method used);
• the results of the indicator measuring the difference in the rate of individual increases between women and men;
• the results of the indicator measuring the percentage of female employees who received an increase in the year following their return from maternity leave;
• the results of the indicator measuring the number of employees of the under-represented sex among the ten highest paid employees;
• the overall result;
• corrective measures;
• progress targets.