Abstract
AbstractSweden is often described as one of the world's most gender‐equal societies, but the gender pay gap nevertheless remains large. In 2007, a special gender‐equality fund that targeted women workers was successfully implemented in the collective bargaining agreement. Although it decreased the gender pay gap, it was controversial and has never been employed since. The aim of this article is to increase knowledge concerning the conditions for such “gender‐equality bargaining” through a detailed empirical case study. An in‐depth study of the bargaining process casts light on how the institutional features of bargaining have changed after 2007 in a way that significantly restricts further attempts to make relative wage changes in gender‐segregated labor markets. The findings indicate that increased employer coordination and a strong industry norm appear to hinder gender‐equality initiatives.
Highlights
ERIKSONGender inequalities continue to permeate labor markets worldwide
The main empirical finding of this study is that the adoption of the Gender Equality Pot” (GEP) was far from a smooth and easy process
Norms and practices were open for certain degree of interpretation, and actors supporting the GEP could take advantage of these loopholes to push through the agreement
Summary
ERIKSONGender inequalities continue to permeate labor markets worldwide. The gender pay gap across the world was about 20% in 2018, and it has only changed marginally in recent decades (ILO, 2019). In order to foster the incorporation of gender‐equality concerns into collective bargaining, previous research has addressed so‐called gender‐equality bargaining as an efficient means for targeting gender‐related inequalities in the labor market (Briskin, 2006; Colling & Dickens, 1998; Gregory & Milner, 2009; Williamson & Baird, 2014). The idea was that there would be an extra wage pot calculated by means of a mathematical formula based upon the proportion of women in each sector with wages below 20,000 SEK (∼2000 EUR). In this way, women with low salaries would receive a higher wage increase than other groups, which would decrease the gender pay gap across sectors
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