Since last Friday, women work “for free” until the end of the year
, due to wage inequality. And this, despite the succession of laws enacted to put an end to these wage inequalities in France. So we need quotas and positive discrimination, believes this Monday, November 7 on France Bleu Isère Corine Lemariey, metropolitan councilor responsible for equality between women and men and the fight against discrimination.
France Bleu Isère: First, what is the wage gap between men and women in the metropolis of Grenoble?
Corine Lemariey: So at the level of the metropolitan institution, we are like in most local authorities, around 9%, which is a completely reasonable figure – even if it is obviously inadmissible – with regard to the figures which are advertised in the private sector or even in other types of communities. The Hospital, for example, is much less virtuous and the State also is less so.
And if not, in the private sector, is there around a 20% pay gap?
Yes, we are around 20% wage differences. You talked about this very strong and symbolic image: since last Friday at 9:10 a.m., women started working for free until December 31.
What is the metropolis doing to reduce this wage gap? What levers do you have?
So we have internal levers first, because we have an equality policy that is completely integrated into all of our public policies. We promote access to management jobs for women, since management jobs are the best paid. We promote access to these jobs for women as much as possible. We are also taking action within the framework of the compensation scheme: we have reviewed the hardship bonuses that have existed until now mainly in technical trades which we know are predominantly male. We have reviewed these hardship bonuses and this has allowed more female jobs, administrative employees or maintenance workers for example, to receive them.
And on the private companies of the territory, where there are the most wage differences, do you have any levers?
Our levers, already, is to be virtuous, that the metropolis sets an example by having women executives. I think that’s also something very important. And then in our ecologically and socially responsible public procurement scheme, we have integration clauses which allow us to induce the companies with which we are going to place orders to have equality clauses or social clauses which promote the employment of people who are less accessible to employment, particularly women.
That’s to say ? When you award public contracts, do you look at the companies applying to see if they respect equal pay for men and women?
Well, we may have requirements depending on certain markets. And then in the execution of the market, we can check the presence of women in the company and its evolution. Since 2018, companies have been required to produce an index on their website, a professional equality index which includes equal pay in particular. And we ask that these companies produce this index. Because even if it is an obligation for companies with more than 50 employees, not all of them produce this index. Nationally, just 60% of companies do.
I actually looked on the government site for the companies that in Isère must publish it. Many don’t. What are you telling them this morning?
Well, I tell them that they have to do it because it’s an obligation, it’s also an encouragement vis-à-vis their employees. In Isère as elsewhere, women occupy or represent 48% of the working population. So it would still be time to talk about real equality. Because we realize that in reality, with the figures we have just given, we are not yet on this real equality.
Do we need quotas? Are you in favor of it?
So me, I tend to be in favor of positive discrimination. We have seen it in political matters, I am a perfect example. I don’t know if, a few years ago, when drawing up lists for the municipal elections, they hadn’t come looking for me to “count the number”… Don’t kid yourself, at the start – less now because the habit is now anchored – we also came to look for women, in small towns in particular, to make the number. And then the women became passionate about what they did, most of them did very well, at least as well as the men, often even better. And so all of this was based on positive discrimination and it was an obligation to put women on an equal footing.