Equal pay for women and men: what employers are required to provide

Ukrainian legislation guarantees women and men equal labor rights and equal pay for similar or equivalent work. Employers do not have the right to set different levels of wages based on the employee’s gender.

The State Labor Service of Ukraine reminds us of this.

What the law guarantees

Article 24 of the Constitution of Ukraine stipulates that all citizens are equal before the law and cannot be subject to restrictions or privileges on the basis of gender.

In addition, Article 2¹ of the Labor Code directly prohibits any discrimination in the labor sphere. And the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men” obliges employers to ensure equal pay for equal work or work of equal value.

What this means in practice

This is not only about equal salaries. The law also provides for:

— equal opportunities for receiving bonuses, allowances and additional payments;

— application of the same criteria for evaluating work;

— preventing salary reductions due to the employee’s gender;

— transparent rules for forming a remuneration system.

That is, if a woman and a man perform work of equal complexity, work in similar conditions and have the same level of responsibility, their salary should be equal.

What are the obligations of the employer

Employers are obliged to:

— ensure a transparent salary accrual system;

— apply uniform approaches when setting salaries;

— not include discriminatory norms in collective agreements or internal documents of the enterprise.

The State Labor Service emphasizes: violation of the principle of equal pay may be grounds for holding the employer liable.