Gender Pay Gap and Social Partnership in Europe : Findings from Close the Deal, Fill the Gap

The gender pay gap (GPG) exists in every European country, but it varies considerably, even in EU member states covered by the same legal principles on pay equality. Part of the variation can be explained by different patterns of social partnership. With current policy pressure to de-centralise collective bargaining and increase the percentage of pay linked to productivity, what role can social partnership play in tackling the GPG?

Reporting on the findings of the European Commission funded research project "Close the Deal, Fill the Gap", this book uses an interdisciplinary analysis involving legal, economic, and sociological expertise, to explore the role of social partnership in GPG in Italy, Poland and the UK. Selected on the basis of their contrasting profiles in terms of legal regulation, industrial relations, systems of collective bargaining, coverage of collective agreements, and differing rates of the GPG, the in-depth study provides important insights into the main issues underlying the problem of reducing the gender pay gap which have led to guidelines in the negotiation of arrangements on GPG-related issues.

Based on a unique comparative, interdisciplinary and action-oriented esearch project, it will be of great interest to all researchers and advanced students with an interest in women’s representation in the workforce and the gender pay gap, as well as practitioners and policy makers in organisations such as trade unions and employers’ associations.

Hazel Conley is Professor of Human Resource Management at University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. Professor Conley has researched extensively on equality legislation, particularly in relation to gender equality, public services and equal pay. She is the co-editor of The Gower Handbook of Discrimination at Work (Gower, 2011) and co-author of Gender Equality in Public Services: Chasing the Dream (Routledge, 2015).

Donata Gottardi is Full Professor of Labour Law at the University of Verona. She was Member of the European Parliament, in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, from 2006 to 2009. Her fields of research include anti-discrimination law, equality and women rights, European law, industrial relations. She is the coordinator of the project «Close the Deal, Fill the Gap», concerning the Gender Pay Gap, funded by the European Commission under the Progress Programme. As regards her most recent publications, she is the editor of «La conciliazione delle esigenze di cura, di vita e di lavoro. Il rinnovato (Giappichelli, 2016) on the work-life balance Italian legislation, and the editor of «L'isola della maternità. Donne lavoratrici di fronte all'esperienza dell'essere madri» (Franco Angeli 2015) on the protection of mothers at work.

Geraldine Healy is Professor of Employment Relations and in the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity at the School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London. She has published widely in leading journals on gender and ethnicity and trade unions, discrimination and disadvantage, individualism and collectivism, the gendered impact of career breaks and an international study of academic careers. Her recent work has explored the intersectionality between gender and ethnicity and the gender pay gap (particularly through the EU project ‘Close the Deal, Fill the Gap’. Her recent books include: Gender and Ethnicity at Work – Inequalities, Career and Employment Relations (2008) with Harriet Bradley and Diversity, Ethnicity, Migration and Work – international perspectives (2011) with Franklin Oikelome, Gender and Leadership in Unions (2013) with Gill Kirton.

Barbara Mikołajczyk is a full professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. She is the head of the Department of International Public Law and European Law. She is a member of the scientific networks COST and Odysseus Academic Network for Studies on Immigration Asylum in Europe. She was also appointed as the ad hoc judge in the European Court of Human Rights (2012 -2014). She has authored books and articles dedicated to human rights of various categories of vulnerable persons, as migrant workers, asylum seekers, children, ethnic minorities, sexual minorities and older persons.

Marco Peruzzi is Researcher of Labour Law at the University of Verona, Italy. His fields of research include anti-discrimination law, gender pay equality, European social dialogue and transnational collective bargaining. Among his publications, L’autonomia nel dialogo sociale europeo (il Mulino, 2011) and Contradictions and Misalignments in the EU Approach Towards the Gender Pay Gap, in Cambridge Journal of Economics, Special Issue on Equal Pay, 2015.