Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Costa Rica (Ratification: 1960)

1. Principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that it wishes to make it clear that the national legal system and practice governing the bodies competent for adjusting wage increments for both the public and the private sectors do not allow the establishment of differences between remuneration rates on the ground of the sex of the worker. It also notes that article 57 of the Constitution provides that “The wage shall always be equal for equal work under identical conditions of efficiency”, while section 167 of the Labour Code provides that “The quantity and quality shall be taken into account when determining the level of the wage for each type of work. Equal wages shall be paid for equal work, performed in the same job and under equal conditions of efficiency and time … ”. The Committee reiterates that these provisions are not in conformity with the principle of the Convention. The Convention does not refer to “equal work”, but to the broader concept of “work of equal value”. The concept of “work of equal value” allows work to be compared that is of an entirely different nature, undertaken in different enterprises and sectors, which is nevertheless of equal value. The Committee refers the Government to its general observation of 2006 on the Convention, in particular to paragraph 6 of the observation. The Committee urges the Government to take the necessary measures to amend the legislation by giving full expression to the principle set out in the Convention, and to provide information of progress made in this regard.

2. Minimum wages. In its previous direct request, the Committee asked the Government to provide information on the activities carried out to reduce sectoral and occupational segregation of women in the labour market. The Committee notes that, according to the Government’s report, the National Institute for Women (INAMU) and the Gender Equality Unit have taken action to ensure that the minimum wage of female domestic workers is equivalent to the minimum wage for unskilled workers, and that the National Wages Board approved a percentage increase, which constitutes significant progress. The Committee notes that this constitutes progress as it improves the income of female domestic workers; however, it also raises the question of the criteria used, considering that domestic work involves a series of tasks of varying complexity, and is generally performed by women, is classified as unskilled work. In this respect, in paragraph 5 of its general observation, the Committee indicated that “often skills considered to be ‘female’, such as manual dexterity and those required in caring professions, are undervalued or even overlooked, in comparison with traditionally ‘male’ skills, such as heavy lifting”. The Committee indicated in the same paragraph that, in order to establish whether different jobs are of equal value, there has to be an examination of the respective tasks involved, through which it has to be possible to compare jobs that are very different in nature, but which are nevertheless of equal value. The Committee notes that Decree No. 33437 of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, in Chapter 2, establishes minimum wages for eight different categories of workers. Please indicate the types of jobs which correspond to each category of minimum wage, with an indication, for example, of those that are considered to be skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled, and please also indicate the distribution of men and women in each of these categories. The Committee would also be grateful if the Government would indicate the criteria that were taken into consideration in classifying domestic work as “unskilled”.

3. Enforcement. The Committee notes that, during the period covered by the report, the records kept by the National Directorate of Inspection do not indicate any complaints relating to the Convention. The Committee considers that the absence of complaints does not mean that the principle set forth in the Convention is applied in practice, especially where this principle is not set out in law. With reference to paragraph 8 of its general observation, the Committee urges the Government to examine the possibility of adopting measures to help judges and labour inspectors guarantee the application of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value, including through the provision of training on the concept of “work of equal value” and the manner in which it is applied in practice, and to keep the Committee informed in this respect.

4. Information entry forms. The Committee notes that progress is being made in the redesign of the information entry forms through which data will be entered relating to equal pay in the wages of men and women. In this respect, progress is also being made in the definition of the terms for the design of the labour information system, through which it will be possible to process the data obtained from each regional office of the Directorate of Labour Inspection disaggregated by the sex of the worker concerned. The Government indicates that it hopes this system will be operational by the end of 2007 or the beginning of 2008. The Committee asks the Government to continue providing information on this point.