Methodology
Compass-W and the Index for Equivalent Work (IngA)
What does "work of equal value" mean?
The principle that women and men should receive equal pay for work of equal value (the so-called principle of equal pay) has long been enshrined in law in Germany and the European Union.
Work is considered equivalent when employees perform identical or similar tasks at different or consecutive workplaces. The question of when different activities can be considered equivalent is more complex. Equivalent work means that while the activities differ in content, they are comparable in terms of requirements and demands – that is, in their "value".
For example, a caregiver and an industrial mechanic, or an office worker and an IT specialist, may perform different jobs. It is important to carefully examine whether their tasks place comparable demands on them – for example, in terms of expertise, responsibility, workload, or working conditions.
The Pay Transparency Directive (EU) 2023/970 (P&L) aims to enforce the principle of equal pay. It stipulates that the equivalence of jobs must be assessed based on objective and gender-neutral criteria. These include, in particular, four criteria: competences (e.g., education, professional experience, and social skills), responsibility, workload, and working conditions.
This is where Compass W's Index for Equal Work (IngA) comes in. The IngA evaluates jobs based on these four criteria, thus creating a transparent, objective, and gender-neutral basis for determining the equal value of different jobs.
Basis of the IngA
The IngA is based on a representative survey of over 30,000 employees in Germany, conducted between March and May 2025. Participants come from diverse sectors and professions – from nursing and industry to commerce, IT, administration, and management. The sample composition reflects the diversity of employees in Germany.
The survey was based on a standardized questionnaire that systematically recorded the requirements of a job. This meant the job evaluation focused directly on the employees: they described the requirements of their own work using standardized questions.
The responses were then statistically analyzed and compiled into an index. The IngA is therefore based on uniformly collected data regarding the requirements of various jobs. This allows for an objective comparison of different jobs.
What was measured and how?
The questionnaire assesses the requirements of a job based on the four criteria that the EU Pay Transparency Directive also provides for the evaluation of comparable work:
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Skills and knowledge – What education, professional experience, or additional qualifications are required? What professional and social skills are needed?
Responsibility – How great is the responsibility for employees, resources, budgets or workflows?
Workload – What physical and mental demands does the job place on you? What are the requirements for concentration and communication?
Working conditions – What are the working conditions, for example, noise, dirt, heat? How are the working hours structured?
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The employees' responses were then statistically analyzed. The individual responses were grouped into 27 job requirements, each describing different aspects of the job. These requirements were then assigned to the four criteria of the EU Directive and finally combined into an overall score – the Index for Equivalent Work (IngA).
What does the IngA value mean?
The IngA value indicates how high the demands of a job are compared to other jobs. It summarizes the requirements in the four areas of skills and knowledge, responsibility, stress, and working conditions into a single value.
The IngA scale ranges from 300 to 600 points. The average of all recorded activities is 425 points. Activities with a higher IngA score are associated with higher demands, while activities with a lower score are associated with lower demands.
An IngA value of 500, for example, means that an activity places significantly higher demands on the job compared to the average – for example, due to the required knowledge, responsibility, or burdens.
Important: The IngA score does not evaluate a person's performance and says nothing about how well someone performs their job. It solely describes the requirements associated with a task – regardless of who performs that task.
What is a "group of equal work"?
The aforementioned IngA values for the activities were divided into 30 groups.
The classification of activities into these 30 groups follows a statistical, variance-based procedure. Activities are grouped in such a way that their IngA values within a group are as similar as possible, while the groups themselves are as clearly distinguishable as possible from one another. The groups are numbered from 1 to 30. In addition to the group affiliation, the precise IngA value and the respective values for the four criteria—skills and knowledge, responsibility, demands, and working conditions—are also provided for each activity.
Practical example: If two activities fall into group 12, for example, these two activities are considered equivalent with regard to the four criteria.
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