companies must publish their index before March 1

By March 1, all companies with at least fifty employees must have calculated and published their professional equality index on their website. For the record, according to the Observatory of inequalities, for equal work and equivalent profession, women earn 5.3% less than men. Last year the average score was up slightly, to 86 out of 100.

The gender equality index is based on five criteria: the gender pay gap, the gap in the distribution of individual increases, the gap in the distribution of promotions, the number of women who received a raise on their return from leave maternity and parity among the ten highest salaries. But this year, the thing is getting tougher since companies must now publish two new data. They concern the presence of women in the highest levels of business. The Rixain law requires companies employing at least 1,000 employees to publish the proportion of women in senior management. And that of women among the governing bodies: management committees, executive committees, management committees, management boards, strategic boards or decision-making boards.

The proportion of women in senior executives and governing bodies must not be less than 30% from March 1, 2026 and 40% from March 1, 2029. But companies must already publish this data .

Watch out for fines

The rules that apply to the index change this year, as specified by the site specializing in human resources ActuEL RH. For this to pass, the mark must reach at least 85 points. If the score is between 75 and 85, the company should set progress goals. And if the score is less than 75, the company has three years to remedy this and taking, for example, salary catch-up measures.

Sanctions may fall if the company has not published its index in a visible and legible way. A formal notice and, if nothing has been done, a fine of up to 1% of its current payroll.