Governments and Social Partners Initiatives in addressing the Gender Pay

Gap

Christine Aumayr-Pintar

Seminar on

Gender Pay Gap: European Perspectives

27 February 2013European Union House, Dublin

European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound)

• Established in 1975 in Dublin

• EU Agency

under auspices of

DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

• Tripartite Board

(Business Europe, ETUC,

National Governments, European Commission)

‘To provide information, advice and expertise – on living and working conditions and industrial relations in Europe – for key actors in the field of EU social policy on the basis of comparative information, research and analysis’

Overview

1. What can we learn from studies that “adjust the gap”?

2. Governments and social partner initiatives until 2009

3. The case of Austria: Pay transparency within the Gender equality national action plan

Adjusted and unadjusted gender pay gap

“Adjusting” the gender pay gap

Unadjusted gap:

Difference between

earnings of men and women

Type of contract

Personal characteristics, family

Job history, tenure

Job, company and workplace characteristics

Contextual variables (e.g. regional unemployment)

Institutional variables (e.g. bargaining system)

Adjusted gap:

“Discriminatory

component”

“holistic approach” –

Rubery, Grimshaw, Figueiredo (2005)

Contractual characteristics

Job/Firm characteristics

Personal characteristics

Job history

Contextual variables

Industrial relations variables

Education, age, family status

Sector, occupation, firm size

Coll. agreement, works council, member of trade union

Summary of 27 national Studies on the GPG

Mapping of quantitative adjustment studies and qualitative studies

• Personal characteristics (age, education, …) account for an increasingly smaller fraction of the Gender Pay Gap (GPG), but: Occupational or horizontal segregation

Vertical segregation and stereotypes

Care responsibilities

Work experience and tenure

Life course, career development

Job valuation

Industrial relations and collective bargaining

Direct influence of social partners

Industrial relations impact: findings of quantitative studies

• Centralised wage bargaining reduces GPG Ireland, Spain: sectoral level bargaining

• Having a works council or a collective wage agreement reduces GPG Germany

• Introduction of minimum wages or social security thresholds Bulgaria, UK

• Predominance of Trade Union representation in male sectors increases the GPG Hungary, Ireland

Government initiatives (until 2009)

Benefitting low paid occupations

Monitoring/transparency

Legislative support for CB

AT, 2007: Legal claim to premium rates forovertime extended to part-time

FI/NO: Subsidise wages in fem. sectors

where valuation and competencies show a high gap;

DK/SE/IT: companies with more than 35, 10, 100 employees are obliged to report on and prevent GPG;-> 2011: AT; PL?

RO/NL: Labour inspectorates

DK: Tripartite pay commission

FR: Genisson law to abolish GPG through CB at

company level

Intensifying the bargaining process in sectors & companies

better diagnostic instruments to identify occupational equality

financial penalty for companies who failTo submit plans for abolishing the GPG-> 1% of the payroll (1st jan 2012)

Trade union initiatives (until 2009)

Awareness raising

Monitoring the wage gapInternal changes

Equal pay daysAT, BE, CZ,

DK, EE, HU, NL

Most often not linked to pay directly but Gender Equality in general

Members,representatives

employers/employees

wider public

Online tools

DK: Fagligt Fælles Forbund, 3F – gap at workplace level: > 5%: contact your TU

DE: DGBwage indicator for women

HU: e-wage barometer10.000 items on wages,work and employment

Training of representatives

Quota

UK:TUC: Project for improving officer’s ability to bargain over equality issues

EE: EAKL provide their officers with Handbooks to promote GE in wage setting

BE: ACV/CSC: 1/3 women in governingboard (target 2006, not reached yet)

Employers organisations initiatives (2009)

• Work–life balance

Women’s entrepreneurship

Quota systems

UK: Employers for Work–Life Balance Alliance

IT, SE: Employers org. ask for more childcare and/or tax deduction initiatives

SI: Family certified enterprise

RO: Entrepreneurial school for women’ (ESF project)

SE: Federation of Swedish farmers: Academy of gender equality

PL: Media Campaign: ‘How good to be a businesswoman!’

Few examples

DE: some individual companies (e.g Daimler)

DK: Dansk Industri, DI: database called ‘Women on board’

Joint initiatives (until 2009)• Information disclosure on wage

• differentials

Wage increases for low-paid occupations and other benefits

Job valuation

NO: Shop stewards have access to information on wage differentials for use in company-level bargaining, this access is regulated through collective agreements at central or local level.

SE: Jämställdhetspotten: provides additional pay to low paid employees, mainly women. Central coll. agreement + local bargaining.

FI: public sector 2007 CA: equality allowance of 2% for qualified employees in some female-dominated Occupations (e.g. nursery schools).

NO: Public sector: Social Partners can agree that women will be prioritised in company level bargaining (2008 and 2009). Private sector: special pay increases collectively bargained for low-wage groups.

LT: “Model collective agreement” by national social partners, including Methodology for the Assessment of Jobs and Positions.

BE: EVA project: reform the system of classifying jobs. Increased nr. of sectoral joint committees deal with it.

NL: Tripartite labour foundation: introduced “checklist on equal pay for payment systems.

Increase of minimum wages (e.g. BG, UK, SE)

3. Pay transparency: The case of Austria

• One of the highest GPG in Europe (>25% 2010; 14-18% adjusted)

• Government launched national action plan on gender equality

• Wide ranging social partner consultations

May 2010: Social partner agreement on 16 selected measures

• Gender sensitive information on education & occupational choice in the 7th and 8th grade

• Make gender sensitive occupational choice compulsory in teacher’s training curricula

• Information campaign for fathers to spend more time with the family

• Working group for the further development of tax incentives related to overtime and part-time in a gender-sensitive way

• 3 measures in relation to the offer of child care services• Evaluation of all family-benefits in relation to their impact on

gender equality & assessment whether they can be substituted by benefits in kind

• Increase of maternity-leave benefits for self-employed women and farmers

• Online pay calculator• Guidelines for works councils, HR professionals etc. for the

analysis of pay gaps and job evaluation• Pay transparency in job announcements• Definition of equal work acc. to the ECJ in the joint guidelines

for negotiators• Joint guidelines of the social partners to foster equality within

collective agreements• Income transparency reports• Increase in the number of female board members

Diversify education & occupational choice

Increase participation and full-time employment of women

Infrastructure for reconciling work and family life

Transparent pay

Increase in the number of female board members

Transparent pay

Online pay calculator Pay transparency in job announcements Income transparency reports

Income transparency report – the instrument

Step-by-step roll-out Every two years Anonymised Average or median pay by occupational category as of the

collective agreements disaggregated by gender For the works council or accessible for employees Experiences so far:

Trade unions: some reports do show discrimination: what to do now? Employers: reports do not show discrimination (fieldwork bonuses,

overtime payments… )

Year Company size

2011 1000 +

2012

500+

2013

250+

2014

150+

? 25+

Conclusions and outlook

• Hard to disentangle pay initiatives from more Gender Equality related ones

• Some promising initiatives across Europe re. addressing direct discrimination monitoring/transparency job re-evaluation & collective bargaining

• Do the initiatives on equal pay reach the company level?

• Little (reported) Social Partner/Government engagement in addressing the causes of segmentation: Choice of profession, re-qualification

• Social Partners are aware, but also need to put a focus on Gender equality/equal pay in own organisations More focus in collective bargaining – also to ensure company level

outcomes.

Thank you for your interest. Do you have any questions?

Dr. Christine Aumayr-Pintar

cau@eurofound.europa.eu

www.eurofound.europa.eu