[spacer height=”10px”]With the favorable vote of 46 legislators, file N° 20389, Law for the Promotion of Women Social Equality, was approved in second debate, and it establishes that women will enjoy equal gender pay, both in the private and the public sector.

The law mandates that this right be applied for job positions of equal value whether it is about different positions of equal value, such as in the same job or in similar functions under the same manager.

In addition, it contains the exception of paid domestic workers who work for several employers, not being considered arbitrary objective differences in remunerations that are based, among other reasons, on skills, qualifications, suitability, responsibility or productivity.

Politicians express their support to the new bill of equal gender pay

[spacer height=”10px”]”A man and a woman for an equal job should earn the same, because in this country poverty has a woman’s face, because in many cases they are not hired for the simple fact of being a woman,” said the legislator of the political party PAC (in Spanish) Paola Vega Rodríguez.

On the other hand, Frente Amplio’s deputy José María Villalta Flores-Estrada was satisfied with the approval of this initiative, which is the first one that comes out of the Special Commission for Women.

“It is embodied in the Constitution as part of social guarantees. It’s uncommon in Costa Rica that for equal work one gets an equal salary, “he said.

The bill creates the Equal Pay Commission between women and men in the public and private sector. This Commission must meet at least twice a year and will be responsible for managing and ensuring that the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC in Spanish) incorporates the indicator of equal pay in the corresponding studies and that it delves into the variables that influence the money income of people (by sex, sector, area, age, hours worked, annuities) to identify in its complexity the behavior of salary differences by sex.

The legislator of the Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC in Spanish), Shirley Díaz Mejía indicated that this is a fundamental leap in the equalization between women and men, “it’s key to close gaps”.

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