Abstract
Economic independence enables individuals to have control over their own life for the purpose of personal and professional prosperity. The principle of equal pay and equality in work engagement is included in the EU treaties, respectively the equality is one of five values on which the European Union has been founded. In this paper we tried to answer the question whether 'equal pay for work of equal value' is applied in practice? For that reason, the subject of our research is the analysis of the problem of gender inequality in order to point out the differences in employment rates and salaries in Serbia as well as in the EU countries. We analyzed the key documents, proposed some measures and pointed out the strategies that aim to support and address issues of gender inequality. In order to build an economically and socially developed society, Serbia, being on its path of European integrations, should pay particular attention to the issue of gender equality, further amending the legal framework and ensuring the inclusion of all aspects of gender equality in development policies.
Highlights
The European Union’s achievements in fostering equality between women and men have recently helped change the lives of many European citizens for the better and provide the foundation on which we have to build a genuinely genderequal society for the purpose of common prosperity.In 2011, The European Union passed a document called: The Strategy for equality between women and men 2010 – 2015, which has to deal with these issues and has a significant impact on many other national polices of member states and future member states - like Serbia
In this paper we tried to answer the question whether “equal pay for work of equal value” is applied in practice? For that reason, the subject of our research is the analysis of the problem of gender inequality in order to point out the differences in employment rates and salaries in Serbia as well as in the EU countries
It should be noted that the employment situation of individuals depends on the availability of jobs as well as the decision/willingness to work among the population (Eurostat News Release: Employment rate of people aged 20 to 64 in the EU up to 69.2% in 2014, 2015, p. 5)
Summary
The European Union’s achievements in fostering equality between women and men have recently helped change the lives of many European citizens for the better and provide the foundation on which we have to build a genuinely genderequal society for the purpose of common prosperity. Serbia has developed many different programs, frameworks, strategies and other documents in order to regulate and support this topic but one of the most important is The National Strategy for improving the position of women and promoting gender equality. The principle of equal pay for men and women for work of equal value is enshrined in the EU Treaties but in practice it is a bit different. When it comes to women, the barriers to employment are reflected in higher inactivity rates and higher longterm unemployment rates. Balanced economic development is not possible without adequate use of female human resources, so it is essential to take specific measures to encourage women in greater involvement in the market economy
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