The employer must pay the same for work of equal value, without sex discrimination in any part of pay: base salary, supplements or non-salary payments (Workers' Statute, article 28.1).
What is «equal value»?
Two jobs are of equal value when the duties, the required training, the performance factors and the working conditions are equivalent. They do not have to be the same job.
The pay register
- Every employer must keep a register of average salaries and supplements of its workforce, broken down by sex and by groups, categories or jobs (article 28.2).
- You can access it through the workers' legal representatives.
- In companies with at least 50 people, if the average of one sex exceeds the other by 25 % or more, the employer must justify in the register that the difference is not due to sex (article 28.3).
Equality plans also include the results of a pay audit (Royal Decree 901/2020, article 8.2.d).
In practiceIf in a hotel the room attendants get a lower bonus than the maintenance porters for
tasks of similar effort and responsibility, you have to check whether both jobs are of equal value.
Source: Real Decreto Legislativo 2/2015, Estatuto de los Trabajadores (Workers' Statute, in Spanish), article 28 · Real Decreto 901/2020, por el que se regulan los planes de igualdad y su registro (equality plans, in Spanish), article 8.2.d)