Gesine Fuchs

2010 Promising paths to pay equity: strategic litigation, collective bargaining and anti discrimination authorities in comparison.

2010 Promising paths to pay equity: strategic litigation, collective bargaining and anti discrimination authorities in comparison.

The gender pay gap in Europe is between 15% and 25% and narrows only slowly. It poses thus a considerable challenge for gender equality as a core value of modernity and democracy. EU law has been instrumental for comprehensive national pay equality legislation. Recent directives have led to new anti discrimination authorities that can investigate claims, support victims and make policy recommendations. Yet the implementation ranges from very weak to quite strong, according to different “worlds of compliance” (Falkner/Treib).

What did these institutions achieve to date and how do they interact with the agenda setting and the actual pay equity policies of women’s organisations and trade unions? As social movements have recently framed their demands for social justice in terms of rights and the law, some women’s organisations and trade unions used strategic litigation before national and European courts as an instrument. Yet many have remained sceptical about the transformative potential of jurisdiction for structural problems. Gender Mainstreaming of collective agreements emerged as a new policy strategy by women’s trade union departments, but met with resistance from both employers and vested male union interests. Which policy is most promising in bringing about pay equity?

National institutional settings, traditions, and welfare regimes substantially influence actors’ strategic choices. Although every approach has certain pitfalls and some potential, the mobilization of discourses of law and rights seems crucial for any progress towards pay equity. The paper is based on comparative research in four countries - Germany, France, and Switzerland. Data includes media analysis, interviews, and court decisions.

Paper available at ssrn.com/abstract=1664468

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