Published on 14 August 2025

Monitoring the Charter for equal pay

By signing the Charter for equal pay, public sector and state-associated organisations commit to providing regular updates on their progress towards equal pay and professional equality. To assess the current situation, the Federal Office for Gender Equality conducts regular surveys among its signatories.

In brief

• A survey was sent to all signatories during the summer of 2024.
• The response rate was 71%.
• Work-life balance is a significant issue for public and state-associated employers.
• Major motivations for signing up to the Charter include the public sector’s responsibility to act as a role model and staff satisfaction.

• Key points of the Charter

  In 2024, monitoring focused on the signatories’ compliance with their commitments, such as raising awareness of professional equality, measures to improve work-life balance and information on the concrete results of these commitments.

  

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• Concrete actions towards equality

  Professional equality is not limited to the issue of pay, as demonstrated by the priorities chosen by the committee at the end of 2024. For instance, the public sector is taking numerous measures to improve work-life balance. To guarantee the effectiveness of these measures, it is important to monitor indicators related to staff equality.

  

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• Why is the public sector making this commitment?

  Signing up to the Charter is a voluntary process. To better understand the motivations of the participating authorities and organisations, the survey asked them to select their three main reasons for signing up from a list. The public sector (Confederation, cantons and communes) and state-associated organisations have slightly different motivations.

  

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Inspirational projects

During the monitoring process, signatories were able to present one or more inspirational projects related to their Charter commitments. These best practices have been compiled in an interactive list.

Discover our inspirational projects