An equality plan is an ordered set of measures adopted in a company, aimed at achieving equal treatment and opportunities between women and men and eliminating discrimination on grounds of sex. Its preparation and application has been mandatory for all companies with 50 or more employees since Royal Decree 901/2020 entered into force.
Which Companies Are Obliged?
All companies with 50 or more employees in their workforce. To determine whether the threshold is exceeded, the average workforce of the previous year is counted. Corporate groups must analyse whether the obligation applies to each company individually or to the group as a whole, depending on the corporate structure.
In addition to the size-based obligation, an equality plan is also required regardless of the number of employees when the applicable collective bargaining agreement establishes this requirement, or when the labour authority imposes it as a substitute sanction for an infringement in the field of equality.
Companies below the 50-employee threshold, although not obliged, may voluntarily adopt equality measures — without needing to negotiate a full plan — and thereby benefit from Social Security contribution bonuses provided for in the regulations.
Minimum Plan Content
Royal Decree 901/2020 establishes that the plan must necessarily include: situation diagnosis, qualitative and quantitative objectives, measures on selection and recruitment, professional classification, training, professional promotion, working conditions (including pay audit), co-responsible exercise of personal and work life rights, female underrepresentation and prevention of sexual harassment and harassment on grounds of sex.
The situation diagnosis is the mandatory starting point. It must be prepared with sex-disaggregated data covering, at minimum: selection and recruitment processes, professional classification, training, career promotion and development, working conditions (including pay and working hours), the exercise of work-life balance and co-responsibility rights, female underrepresentation, remuneration, and prevention of sexual and sex-based harassment.
Validity and Registration
Equality plans have a maximum validity of four years. They must be registered in the REGCON (registry of collective agreements, collective work agreements and equality plans). From registration, the plan has legal effect and non-compliance can result in sanctions of up to 225,018 euros in the most serious cases.
The registration process requires submitting the complete plan documentation, including the minutes of the negotiating committee’s constitution, the situation diagnosis, the full content of the plan, and the approval minutes. The REGCON carries out a formal review of the documentation before proceeding with registration.
Pay Audit
The pay audit — whose results must be incorporated into the equality plan — analyses the professional classification system and job valuation to detect possible gender pay gaps. Its preparation must follow the criteria of Royal Decree 902/2020 on pay equality.
The pay audit must include: analysis of the representation of women and men in the different professional groups and positions; analysis of remuneration (base salary, salary supplements and non-salary benefits) disaggregated by sex; and identification of the causes that may explain detected pay differences, distinguishing between justified factors and possible discriminatory biases.
In practice, the most common gender pay gaps in Spanish companies are concentrated in productivity, availability and working hours supplements, which have historically benefited male workers more. The audit must identify these patterns and propose corrective measures with defined objectives and timescales.
The Negotiation Process
The preparation of an equality plan is not a unilateral company decision: it must be negotiated with the workers’ legal representatives (works council, staff representatives) or, failing that, with a negotiating committee formed by the most representative trade union organisations in the sector.
The process comprises several phases: constitution of the negotiating committee (maximum three months from when the obligation arises), preparation and delivery of the situation diagnosis to the committee, negotiation of the plan content, agreement and signature, and registration in the REGCON. Each company must document all meetings and agreements reached during the process.
Penalties for Non-Compliance
Failure to comply with the obligation to prepare and implement an equality plan is classified as a very serious infringement under LISOS (Article 8.17), with fines that can reach 225,018 euros. This infringement can also result in:
- Automatic loss of public sector grants, subsidies or bonuses.
- A ban on contracting with the public sector for a period of between one and three years.
- Publication of the sanction in the Official State Gazette (BOE) in the most serious cases.
The Labour and Social Security Inspectorate intensified its monitoring activities relating to equality plans and pay audits from 2022, meaning that the risk of detection is significantly higher than in previous years.
At BMC we advise on the preparation, negotiation and registration of equality plans. See our employment law services.
