German Federal Labor Court: Employers May No Longer Cite ‘Better Negotiating Skills’ as an Argument for Unequal Pay

In the past, the argument was often made that a female employee might not be entitled to a differential compensation claim due to lower pay compared to a male colleague, if the higher salary of the male colleague who performed the same work or equal work for the same employer resulted from his better negotiating skills in the context of salary negotiations. The point was made that employers have an interest in recruiting employees, and this justified salary differences in individual cases.