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Gay marriage back on the discussion table in Swiss parliament

A Swiss parliamentary commission is to prepare a study on gay marriage after the right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) on Friday failed in its bid to bury the issue.

Published: 16 June 2017 10:58 CEST
Gay marriage back on the discussion table in Swiss parliament
Photo: Syda_Productions/Depositphotos
Gay marriage is not legal in Switzerland, though same-sex couples can enter into a civil partnership after the move was approved in a 2005 referendum. 
 
While many MPs – and, according to a 2015 survey, a majority of the Swiss public – are in favour of marriage equality, hardline conservative MPs have tried to block moves towards it. 
 
Speaking in parliament SVP MP Yves Nidegger said the word marriage was historically linked to the fact that a couple can procreate, reported news agencies.
 
“To replace it with the word ‘union’ for people who by definition cannot procreate is not only absurd but dangerous,” he said. 
 
But the lower house voted 118 to 71 in favour of launching a parliamentary study on the issue, suggested by the Green Liberal party, which will also examine the idea of extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples. 
 
The study will consider the impact of marriage equality on Swiss laws concerning tax, social security, adoption and fertility treatment. 
 
Any law changes would have to be passed by the public in a referendum, since they would require changes to the Swiss constitution. 
 
 
Equal marriage would also have an impact on the naturalization of foreign residents. 
 
Currently, foreign spouses of Swiss citizens are eligible for facilitated naturalization, an easier process than the longer ‘ordinary’ naturalization process. If equal marriage were law, same-sex spouses and heterosexual civil partners could then be eligible for the facilitated system.
 
The commission is not obliged to suggest legislation over the issue of adoption rights for homosexual couples, said news agencies. 
 
Currently gay people in Switzerland are not allowed to adopt. 
 
 
At the time some MPs opposing the move said they feared it was a ‘salami’ tactic that could lead to legalizing adoption for single gay people and surrogacy. However a campaign to launch a referendum against the law change failed to get the required number of signatures.
 
Switzerland lags behind other European countries on the issue of gay rights. 
 
The country fell three places in the latest Rainbow Europe ranking by LGBTI advocacy group ILGA-Europe, placing 26 out of 49 countries, far behind the UK, France, Spain and Norway. 
 
Switzerland met just 31 percent of the report’s criteria for equal rights. 
 

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EQUALITY

Why is the gender pay gap so big in German-speaking countries?

In Germany, Switzerland and Austria, women are losing ground in the fight for pay equity, according to a recent analysis from the Munich-based Ifo Institute for Economic Research.

Published: 8 March 2024 15:05 CET
Why is the gender pay gap so big in German-speaking countries?

As DACH countries celebrate International Women’s Day, inequalities in the workplace still remain – especially when it comes to remuneration. 

Despite efforts to close the gender pay gap, new research reveals that men still receive much higher bonuses than women in German-speaking countries.

“The gender pay gap in bonus payments is significantly bigger than in basic salary,” said Ifo researcher Michaela Paffenholz in a report published on Tuesday. “These major differences make the gap in total salary even larger.”

Ifo’s data reveals the pay gap in performance related bonuses extends across the DACH region. In Germany, women receive an average of 6.1 percent less in bonus payments, while in Austria, the gap between men and women is 7.2 percent and in Switzerland, women receive an average of 5.2 percent less in bonuses.

The prevalence of performance-based pay continues to grow across Europe. The number of workers receiving performance bonuses nearly doubled from 2000 to 2015 to include nearly a third of European workers, according to a European Trade Union Institute working paper. 

Reducing the gender pay gap is one of the top priorities of the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025. But the issue of unequal bonus pay has received little focus from policymakers. 

Ifo Institute’s analysis found that bonus payments can increase the gender wage gap. 

In Germany, the pay gap between men and women in basic salary is 2.7 percent, but bonuses increase this gap to 3 percent in total salary. In Austria, the gender gap in basic salary is 2.3 percent, with bonus pay bumping that up to 2.9 percent.

In Switzerland, the gap is 1.2 percent for basic salary; bonus payments increase this to 1.6 percent for total salary.

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Still, the gender pay gap is not limited to hourly earnings and bonus payments: working in lower-paid sectors and fewer working hours also contribute to the gap between men and women’s pay.

According to statistics from the Germany’s Statistical Office, working women in Germany earned 18 percent less than men in 2023. 

This story translates across the DACH region. In Austria women earned 18.4 percent less gross wages per hour than men in 2022. Swiss women face a similar reality. Working women earned 18 percent less than men in 2022, despite “equal pay for work of equal value” being enshrined in the federal constitution since 1981. 

Larger companies are overrepresented in the market data collected by Mercer, so the studies are not representative of all companies in the DACH region. 

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