Lula sanctions equal wages law for men and women – 07/03/2023 – Market

President Lula (PT) sanctioned this Monday (3) the law that establishes equal pay for men and women who perform the same function and stated that businessmen will need to respect the new rule.

“In this government, a businessman who does not comply will have to face Brazilian legislation”, he said.

The Chief Executive stated that the CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws) of 1943 already provided for equal remuneration, but that the rule was always breached and that, now, inspection will increase with the new law. “Actually, there is a government that enforces the law and a government that doesn’t enforce the law,” he said.

The statement was given during the ceremony of sanctioning the project that makes equal pay mandatory for men and women who perform the same functions.

The PL was symbolically approved, without counting votes, in the Senate in June. The text was presented by the Executive on Women’s Day, March 8.

The text penalizes with fines equivalent to ten times the highest amount paid by the employer to companies that pay higher wages to men than to women who perform the same function. The value will be 100% higher in case of recurrence.

Currently, the legislation already provides for the payment of a fine for cases of unequal remuneration, but with some differences. First, the text spoke of “gender and ethnicity”. Second, the payment of the fine had another calculation: 50% of the maximum benefit limit of the RGPS (General Social Security Regime), in addition to the salary difference itself.

The change in the law, in addition to proposing a more bitter fine, textually says that equal pay is mandatory for men and women in the same position, with the same conditions.

The bill was approved on May 31 by three Senate committees: CAE (Commission on Economic Affairs), CDH (Commission on Human Rights) and CAS (Commission on Social Affairs). In plenary, only senator Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE) registered a vote against.

The text also establishes that companies with more than one hundred employees will be required to publish semi-annual salary transparency reports, preserving employees’ personal data.

The document will need to have data for easy salary comparison and “proportion of occupation of leadership, management and leadership positions filled by women and men”.

If the company does not publish the report, it will have to pay an administrative fine of up to 3% of the payroll, with a limit set at one hundred minimum wages.

In the same act, Lula also sanctioned the project that guarantees payment of the Bolsa Atleta for puerperal women and pregnant women and another that includes moral and sexual harassment and discrimination as infractions within the scope of the OAB (Order of Lawyers of Brazil).

“I think the issue of harassment is a much more serious thing than people think. How many girls suffer harassment in law firms? I can’t say a number, but I know it’s a very serious thing in this country”.