Initiative

The BESTA way - a method for analysis of pay differences between men and women

Summary of the initiative

SAGE is The Swedish Agency for Government Employers (SAGE) is a membership organisation for Government agencies. SAGE was established on 1 July 1994. It has 250 member agencies in the central Government sector. Other members include closely associated organisations, mostly foundations.

The social partners in the central government sector have since 2007 an agreement to support local social partners in the Swedish agencies with a method to make sure there are no unjustified differences in pay between men and women.

The method, called BESTA, describes step by step how to analyse pay and conditions of employment with a gender perspective and how to use statistics to compare men’s and women’s pay for work with the same or equivalent tasks.

The statistics are based on a classification system for positions by function or occupational field and the degree of difficulty, jointly sanctioned by social partners in the central governmental sector. The analysis can be made before and after a salary review.

The method was tested in 2010 and from 2011 it is available for all members (mostly agencies) in the Swedish Agency for Government Employers (SAGE).

Ten educational seminars have been held during 2012 and more were offered in 2013.

Both employers and unions have taken great interest in the method. For example the social partners in the Swedish Tax Agency, with more than 10,000 employees, have used the BESTA way in 2012.

A positive result of the analysis is that the agency has been able to make a more distinct connection between the agency’s pay policy and business development. Another result is that all managers now are more aware of which factors they use in evaluating individual work results and why.