A German anti-discrimination official, Ferda Ataman, is calling for the next federal government to introduce regulations for greater wage transparency. According to her, women are still often discriminated against in the job market, with a 16 percent average pay gap compared to men.
Ataman, the Federal Anti-Discrimination Officer, emphasized the need for greater transparency in wages among employers, citing EU guidelines that need to be implemented in national law and the outdated wage transparency law strengthened. This, she believes, would enable more women to find out what their male colleagues earn and whether they are being fairly paid.
The Anti-Discrimination Office of the Federal Government has received more than 7,500 inquiries since its establishment in 2006, including over 500 cases of wage discrimination. Ataman criticized that in so-called women’s professions, salaries are often lower and in many cases, women even receive less pay than their male colleagues for the same work, which is not only unfair but also illegal.
She added that, in her opinion, the current tendency of viewing women as mere reproductive machines and excluding them from important decision-making processes is a step backward. The proportion of women in the new Bundestag has, in fact, decreased further.