The European Commission and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) have published the guide “EU-wide guidelines on gender-neutral job evaluation and classification: Step-by-step toolkit”, a practical tool for employers and social partners to implement gender-neutral job evaluation and classification systems, in support of the application of Directive (EU) 2023/970 on pay transparency.
The guide proposes a structured approach based on objective and comparable criteria across different jobs, focusing on the actual content of the work (rather than the person doing the job), namely skills, responsibility, effort, and working conditions. It highlights that gender-based discrimination can occur at any stage (from job descriptions to evaluation committee decisions) and include recommendations and tools to prevent it (e.g., collecting information through questionnaires/interviews, using clearly defined factors/sub-factors, documenting the reasoning).
Significant emphasis is placed on the fact that, in traditional evaluations, emotional and mental effort (e.g., managing stressful situations, multitasking, responsibility for the well-being of others) and certain less “visible” psychosocial risks/working conditions tend to be underestimated, which can lead to the underclassification and undercompensation of roles predominantly held by women. In this regard, the guide provides examples and templates to coherently integrate these elements into job evaluations.