IKEA Switzerland is the first company worldwide to reach highest level of gender equality certification from EDGE

Spreitenbach/Geneva, Switzerland, 29.9.2015 *** EDGE is the leading global standard for gender equality and has assessed IKEA Switzerland's policies, practices and numbers in five different areas: equal pay for equivalent work, recruitment and promotion, leadership development training and mentoring, flexible working and company culture. As a result, IKEA Switzerland is the first company worldwide to reach LEAD, the highest level of EDGE certification.

The vision of IKEA is to create a better everyday life for the many people, which includes the IKEA co-workers around the world. For years IKEA Switzerland has been committed to establishing gender equality amongst its 3000 co-workers. "With the EDGE certification we have the opportunity to verify whether our ambition to treat men and women equally at IKEA is a living reality", says Simona Scarpaleggia, CEO of IKEA Switzerland. "By reaching the highest level of certification, we are tightening IKEA's company structure and culture to prevent pay gaps, underrepresentation of women in management positions and different career paths for women", Scarpaleggia continues. More than 100 companies from 31 different countries have been certified or are in the process of becoming certified by EDGE for the first or second level so far.

1004 employees were interviewed

The EDGE assessment included company statistics, interviews with more than 1000 employees and in-depth interviews with IKEA Switzerland's HR professionals. The analysis of salaries has shown that IKEA has a statistically insignificant unexplained gender pay gap.

"IKEA Switzerland is the success story of gender-enlightened, sustainable business" says Aniela Unguresan, co-founder of EDGE Certified Foundation.

- Cross reference: Picture is available at AP Images (http://www.apimages.com) and http://www.presseportal.ch/de/nr/100003642 -

For further Information please contact:

IKEA Switzerland
Alexander Gligorijevic, PR Manager, IKEA Switzerland
Tel. 058 853 36 55, alexander.gligorijevic@ikea.com
or pr.ch@ikea.com