Germany has flourished under Chancellor Angela Merkel over the last 12 years, with record-low unemployment and robust economic growth. But that success hasn’t translated into better pay for women in the country, where one of the worst gender pay gaps in Europe looks unlikely to get better soon. Despite having a woman running the government, a new law aimed at highlighting the issue lacks the teeth to boost women’s standing in the corporate sector. The so-called Wage Transparency Act, which took full force in January, puts the onus on individual employees to step forward and request information on wage discrepancies, while companies are given plenty of wiggle room. “The law will practically have no impact on furthering pay equality,” said Hans-Georg Kluge, a lawyer who specializes in anti-discrimination cases. “Individual women who are willing to take their case to court will draw no benefit from this.”
