Equal Pay: Wintershall Dea globally certified as Equal-Salary employer

• First energy company to be awarded global certification
• Third EQUAL-SALARY-certified company worldwide across all sectors

Equal work, equal pay: Wintershall Dea pays its employees regardless of their gender and is the first energy company worldwide to receive the globally valid EQUAL-SALARY certification. It is the third company to be globally certified.

The non-profit EQUAL-SALARY Foundation, established in 2010, has created a certification that allows companies to verify that they pay their female and male employees equally for the same work or work of the same value. The certification process was developed in collaboration with the University of Geneva, an institution specialised in labour market issues, and world-leading audit firms. The European Commission recognises EQUAL-SALARY as an approach to verify the fairness of pay between men and women and gender equality (EU Report 2021, Tackling the gender pay gap in the European Union).

Wintershall Dea CEO Mario Mehren is convinced: “It goes without saying that we don’t just talk about diversity and equality, but also examine where we stand and where we can do even better. The EQUAL-SALARY certification means that we have achieved a key milestone in our diversity and inclusion strategy and set a benchmark for our industry.”

The EQUAL-SALARY employer certification was awarded after an audit carried out by auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in accordance with the approach prescribed by the EQUAL-SALARY Foundation. The process began in 2021 and covered salary analyses, surveys, focus group discussions and interviews with employees, as well as the salary data review. The auditors were especially positive at Wintershall Dea about the personal commitment as well as the open and committed attitude of the management team with regard to gender equality and diversity. In addition, they also praised the existing principle of equal pay as well as the globally valid personnel strategy and its integration in the corporate goals.

The co-CEO of the EQUAL-SALARY Foundation, Noémie Storbeck, says: “Today we are very proud to welcome Wintershall Dea as our third globally EQUAL-SALARY certified company. Despite numerous challenges across the energy sector, Wintershall Dea is doing the right thing by moving from talk to action and setting the bar for excellence in gender equality in the workplace. This global certification is proving their enforcement of fair pay across the company and trailblazing values of diversity and inclusion throughout the industry”.

“I am very proud of the result from the EQUAL-SALARY Foundation, since it proves that there is no gender pay gap at Wintershall Dea. By promoting equal pay, our company supports social change towards equal sharing of gainful employment and care activities,“ explains Petra Angstmann, Senior Vice President Human Resources, “We are convinced that diverse teams at all levels of the hierarchy are more successful and define clear goals in our corporate goals: the proportion of women in management positions should be more than 30% by 2025. By comparison: the proportion of female managers in mid-2019 was 20%, in 2022 it was already 29%”.

For Wintershall Dea, the process does not end with the global certification, but will continue: In 2023 and 2024, continuous monitoring will be carried out by PwC to regularly review the criteria for which the certificate is awarded and to safeguard against possible gender pay gaps in future. 

Background: Worldwide, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021, another generation of women will have to wait for gender parity. As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be felt, closing the global gender gap has increased by a generation from 99.5 years to 135.6 years.