France’s government recently published decrees that provide further details on two gender equality laws — the Gender Equality Index issued in September 2018, and the Rixain Law — published on 24 December 2021. Decree 2022-243 sets out the steps that certain companies must take to improve their gender equality score under the Gender Equality Index, and Decree 2022-680 includes the calculation methods and requirements for publishing the progress targets for senior executive roles and management bodies.
The Gender Equality Index requires companies with 50 or more employees to calculate their professional gender inequalities by 1 March of every year. Effective 26 February 2022, Decree 2022-243 requires that:
The Rixain Law requires companies with 1,000 or more employees to publish, on their website, the representation gaps between women and men in senior executive roles (as defined by the Labor Code), and on their management bodies (as defined by the Commercial Code, and including management committees and executive committees). Effective 28 April 2022, the decree includes:
Companies must annually publish the gender representation information in a clear and visible format on their websites by 1 March, based on the previous year’s data. Companies also must annually update their information for publication on the Ministry of Labor’s website by 31 December.