Such an initiative, presented five years ago by communist legislator Karol Cariola, will now pass to the Senate, which is expected to endorse it, in what would constitute a huge advance in the fight against the deep gender inequalities that plague Chilean society.

The legislation seeks to regulate the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for equal work; thus, it reflects the recommendations on the subject from the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The text, popularly known as ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work,’ in addition to establishing equal payment, requires employers to set pay scales based on an analysis of the jobs and their descriptions, as established by the Labor Directorate.

From that point on, the differences in salary between men and women that are not duly justified according to such method will be considered as wage discrimination.

In that regard, they urged President Sebastian Piñera to ‘give urgency and immediate discussion to that bill that took us so many years to get it out of the Chamber of Deputies, and we hope that the Senate will not stall it.’

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