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Comparing Pay Transparency Measures to Tackle the Gender Pay Gap: Best Practices and Challenges in Belgium, Denmark and Iceland

Comparing Pay Transparency Measures to Tackle the Gender Pay Gap: Best Practices and Challenges in Belgium, Denmark and Iceland
Comparing Pay Transparency Measures to Tackle the Gender Pay Gap: Best Practices and Challenges in Belgium, Denmark and Iceland
Gender differences in pay for the same work or work of equal value have been outlawed in many countries for a long time. Traditionally, most of the efforts to address them focused on remedial action via equal pay claims taken by individual workers, or in best-case scenarios, by a group of workers through joint claims or collective complaints (e.g. class actions). In some contexts, they have also been at least partly addressed via collective bargaining. In the light of the persisting Gender Pay Gap (GPG) (still at 14.1 % in 2019 for the EU-27) and the widespread understanding that gender pay discrimination is unacceptable, yet very common, a relatively large number of jurisdictions have introduced pay transparency measures as a regulatory strategy to reduce the GPG as part of a broader policy mix. These measures are generally aimed at disclosing pay information to different groups of stakeholders in order to understand the sources of inequity and advance towards gender pay equity. Yet they also raise concerns on various fronts, i.e. they involve disclosing sensitive personal data and may add costs for employers, which may be more difficult to bear for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
gender differences, pay gap, work, equality, pay, value, equity, data
Benedi lahuerta, Sara
657ceee7-1cbf-42b5-bd45-e3c12d66e465
Benedi lahuerta, Sara
657ceee7-1cbf-42b5-bd45-e3c12d66e465

Benedi lahuerta, Sara (2022) Comparing Pay Transparency Measures to Tackle the Gender Pay Gap: Best Practices and Challenges in Belgium, Denmark and Iceland. SSRN Electronic Journal. (doi:10.2139/ssrn.4111185).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Gender differences in pay for the same work or work of equal value have been outlawed in many countries for a long time. Traditionally, most of the efforts to address them focused on remedial action via equal pay claims taken by individual workers, or in best-case scenarios, by a group of workers through joint claims or collective complaints (e.g. class actions). In some contexts, they have also been at least partly addressed via collective bargaining. In the light of the persisting Gender Pay Gap (GPG) (still at 14.1 % in 2019 for the EU-27) and the widespread understanding that gender pay discrimination is unacceptable, yet very common, a relatively large number of jurisdictions have introduced pay transparency measures as a regulatory strategy to reduce the GPG as part of a broader policy mix. These measures are generally aimed at disclosing pay information to different groups of stakeholders in order to understand the sources of inequity and advance towards gender pay equity. Yet they also raise concerns on various fronts, i.e. they involve disclosing sensitive personal data and may add costs for employers, which may be more difficult to bear for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

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More information

Published date: 17 May 2022
Additional Information: Originally published as UCD Working Papers in Law, Criminology & Socio-Legal Studies Research Paper No. 5/2022
Keywords: gender differences, pay gap, work, equality, pay, value, equity, data

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 480211
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/480211
PURE UUID: 77157acf-d980-489d-a734-0e2f8725bf6e
ORCID for Sara Benedi lahuerta: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2769-372X

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Date deposited: 01 Aug 2023 17:05
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 23:25

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Author: Sara Benedi lahuerta ORCID iD

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