Cambridge Journal of Economics 2015, 39, 299–317

doi:10.1093/cje/bev010

Equal Pay as a Moving Target:

International perspectives on forty-years
of addressing the gender pay gap
Jacqueline O’Reilly, Mark Smith, Simon Deakin and Brendan Burchell*

This paper provides an overview of the key factors impacting upon the gender
pay gap in the UK, Europe and Australia. Forty years after the implementation of
the first equal pay legislation, the pay gap remains a key aspect of the inequalities
women face in the labour market. While the overall pay gap has tended to fall in
many countries over the past forty years, it has not closed; in some countries it
has been stubbornly resistant, or has even widened. In reviewing the collection of
papers that make up this special issue we identify four broad themes with which
to group the contributions and draw out the explanations for diverse trends: theo-
retical and conceptual debates; legal developments and their impacts; wage setting
institutions and changing employer demands; and newly emerging pay inequali-
ties between and within educational and ethnic groups. Across the four themes
we underline how the trends in the gender pay gap capture the dynamism of
inequalities, as the market power of different groups and stakeholders changes
over times. Three key dimensions emerge from the papers to provide a frame-
work for future research and policy discourse: the relationship between litigation
and bargaining strategies; the interaction between wage-setting institutions and
new organisational practices; and the increasing and range of diversity or equality
strands competing for equal treatment. We conclude that progress towards clos-
ing the gender pay gap will not be easy, will require a collective effort of various
actors, and will not be quick.

Key words: equal pay, gender pay gap, wage determination, collective bargaining,
litigation, equality and diversity
JEL classifications: J16, J18, J31, J71, J78, J83, K31, K41

Address for correspondence: Jacqueline O’Reilly, Brighton Business School, University of Brighton, Mithras
House, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4QT, email: [email protected]
* University of Brighton Business School (JOR), Grenoble Ecole de Management (MS), Faculty of Law
and Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge (SD), Department of Sociology, University of
Cambridge (BB).
The authors wish to acknowledge support from the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge,
for hosting the symposium from which several of the papers in this special issue were drawn. Presentations
from this symposium are available here: http://www.brighton.ac.uk/crome/events/cambridge-journal-of-
economics-equal-pay.aspx. The authors are also very grateful for the administrative support provided by
Catherine O’Brien in organising the Cambridge symposium, and to Jacqui Lagrue for monitoring the sub-
missions and manuscript revisions.
© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society.
All rights reserved.

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 300   O’Reilly et al.
1. Introduction
It is forty years since statutory initiatives were taken in Britain and Europe to tackle
gender pay inequality. In Britain, the Equal Pay Act, enacted in 1970 after a long and
bitter industrial conflict led by women workers at Ford’s Dagenham plant, acquired
full legal effect on 29 December 1975. The European Community’s Equal Pay
Directive was adopted on 10 February of the same year. Since the implementation
of this hard-fought-for legislation there has been a growing body of statute and case
law amplifying and modifying the original law. These further legal developments have
addressed and clarified issues around new forms of discrimination, recognition and
reward. Extensions of equality legislation have gone beyond the demands for equal
pay to include a more general right to equal treatment and to address equality strands
beyond that of gender (Hepple et al. 2000; Hepple, 2012, 2013 and 2014). The Anglo-
Saxon and European models of gender pay equality have inspired campaigns and laws
around the world. Less directly, the equal pay model helped to foster the living wage
movement in the US and the UK, and assisted the introduction of minimum wage
policies in a number of countries (Figart et al. 2002). Thus the original equal pay leg-
islation triggered a step change in policy and practice towards gender inequality and
pay inequality more generally.
Historic data for the UK demonstrates a dramatic decline in the pay gap from 36.2%
in 1970 to 19.8% in 1997 (Perfect 2011). A similar trend was observable in the US
where the gender pay gap for full timers fell from 35.7% in 1970 to 23.1% in 2000
(IWPR 2014). However, over the last decade it has stayed rather stubbornly around
19% in these two countries (see table 1).1
Comparable international data presented in Table 1 illustrate the diversity of levels
and trends between countries. Estonia has one of the highest gender pay gaps of 30%
in 2012, followed by Japan, Germany and the Czech Republic with wage gaps of over
20% in 2012. In comparison, the lowest gaps are found in Slovenia, New Zealand,
Poland and Italy. Nevertheless, the comparable data available from Eurostat and the
OECD suggest that the gender pay gap has been quite erratic in some of these coun-
tries over the last decade. In some countries this gap has even increased, especially
since the economic crisis of 2008, for example in Portugal and Italy. The gender pay
gap in Italy has been traditionally very low. This results from specific characteristics
of more limited numbers of better-qualified women being employed in higher paying
wage segments of the formal economy in Italy. The recent widening of this gap in Italy
has been attributed to an expansion of women’s employment in lower-wage sectors
(Peruzzi this issue). This phenomenon highlights the risks of encouraging the expansion
of low-quality employment in order to encourage increased rates of female employ-
ment. The variety and persistence of gender pay gap differences across countries, as
well as the direction of change over time, prompt us to ask how well existing theories
can explain these recent developments.

1
Comparable historic data prior to 1997 for other countries was unavailable at the time of writing. There
are a number of methodological issues with regard to how these gaps are measured using different sources
of data and whether comparisons are restricted to full-time workers, or include part-timers (see Grimshaw
2011, Whitehouse 2001 and Zabalza and Tzannatos 1985, for a more in depth discussion of this issue. See
also www.equalpayportal.co.uk/statistics/ for the UK, http://ec.europa.eu/justice/gender-equality/gender-pay-
gap/situation-europe/index_en.htm for the EU and http://www.oecd.org/gender/data/genderwagegap.htm for
OECD countries for a useful collection of data sources and definitions on measures of gender pay gaps).

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 Equal Pay as a Moving Target   301
Table 1. The Gender Pay Gap in Selected Countries 2002 to 2012

2002 2006 2008 2010 2012

Belgium : 9.5 10.2 10.2 10.0

Bulgaria 18.9 12.4 12.3 13.0 14.7
Czech Republic 22.1 23.4 26.2 21.6 22.0
Denmark : 17.6 17.1 15.9 14.9
Germany : 22.7 22.8 22.3 22.4 p
Estonia : 29.8 27.6 27.7 30.0
Ireland 15.1 17.2 12.6 13.9 14.4 p
Greece 25.5 20.7 22.0 b 15 :
Spain 20.2 17.9 16.1 16.2 17.8 p
France : 15.4 16.9 15.6 15.4 p
Italy : 4.4 4.9 5.3 6.7
Cyprus 22.5 21.8 19.5 16.8 16.2
Latvia : 15.1 11.8 15.5 13.8
Lithuania 13.2 17.1 21.6 14.6 12.6
Hungary 19.1 14.4 17.5 17.6 20.1
Netherlands 18.7 23.6 18.9 17.8 16.9
Poland 7.5 7.5 11.4 4.5 6.4
Portugal : 8.4 9.2 12.8 15.7
Romania 16.0 7.8 8.5 b 8.8 9.7 e
Slovenia 6.1 8.0 4.1 0.9 2.5
Slovakia 27.7 25.8 20.9 19.6 21.5
Finland : 21.3 20.5 20.3 19.4 p
Sweden : 16.5 16.9 15.4 15.9
United Kingdom 27.3 24.3 21.4 19.5 19.1
Switzerland : 18.6 18.4 b 17.8 :
Australia 15.0 16.7 11.9 14.0 13.8
Japan 32.5 33.0 30.7 28.7 26.5
New Zealand 7.5 9.3 7.8 6.8 6.2
United States 22.1 19.2 20.1 18.8 19.1

Notes: (a) “:” not available (b) “b” break in series (c) “p” provisional (d) “e” estimate.
Source: Eurostat (2015) for EU Member States and Switzerland; OECD (2015) for Australia, Japan, New
Zealand and USA.

Some universal factors accounting for the gender pay gap include the under-valua-
tion of women’s work and norms reinforcing women’s position as economic depend-
ents. Workplace characteristics and sex segregation of women into low value-added
jobs (Burchell et al. 2014), especially in sectors that lack union representation also play
an important role. Many of these factors can also be traced to the unequal division of
unpaid labour in the home shaping patterns of segregation, working time schedules
and access to promotion (ILO 2015: 45; Goldin 2014; Grimshaw 2011; Rubery et al.
2005). However, the intensity of some of these traditional gendered norms and con-
ventions vary between countries mediating the effects of the gender division of labour
and the rewards allocated to paid work (O’Reilly et al. 2014).
Nationally specific wage setting mechanisms also have a significant mediating effect
and are often used to explain cross-national and inter group differences. In some coun-
tries narrowing the gender pay gap has been associated with a general levelling down
of pay standards through deteriorating conditions for male workers. In particular low
paid men, in some countries, have seen a stagnation or relative decline in their wages,
as well as varying degrees to which levels of unionisation have fallen and traditional

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 302   O’Reilly et al.
well paid and protected male jobs in the manufacturing sector have disappeared since
the 1980s (ONS 2014: 4–5; Grimshaw 2011; Dickens 2007; Whitehouse 2001).
The significant increase in female educational attainment and formal participation
on the US labour market during the 1980s has been used to explain why the pay gap
closed faster in earlier periods (Blau and Kahn 2007). However, more recently the pro-
portional increase has not been as large and not impacted as much on the pay gap as in
earlier decades. Whilst education is an important labour market indicator of economic
status, despite women’s increased educational attainment equivalent to or surpassing
that of men, it has not served to level the pay gap as earlier research might have expected.
A large part of the gender pay gap remains ‘unexplained’, i.e. it is not fully accounted
for by variables such as education, job experience, age or skills included in many econo-
metric decomposition methods (ILO 2015: 48–9; Blau and Kahn 2007: 846).
Gender pay inequalities persist. Despite statutory initiatives, new forms of inequal-
ity between different groups of women are becoming ever more apparent, especially
in the context of global increases in wealth inequalities (Grimshaw 2011; Smith 2012;
Piketty 2014). For example, while the gender pay gap at the lower earnings level has
narrowed, it has increased at the top. A recent ILO (2015) study noted that, ‘In Europe
in 2010, the bottom 10 per cent of women earned about €100 per month less than the bottom
10 per cent of men. Conversely, the top 10 per cent of high-earning women earned close to
€700 per month less than the top 10 per cent of men.’ (ILO 2015: 48). Gender pay gaps
vary not only between occupational statuses, but also between sectors and regions
within the same country (ONS 2014).
While the overall pay gap has tended to fall in many countries over the past forty
years, it has not closed; in some countries it has been stubbornly resistant, or has even
deteriorated. For some, advances in women’s labour market position and the presence
of statutory equal pay frameworks suggest optimism and promise, for those who have
the patience to sit back and wait for things to improve. One estimation for the US
suggests that equal pay will be achieved in 2058 at the current rate of progress (IWPR
2013). For others, the stalling of progress could indicate complacency, or something
worse, including the persistence of implicit forms of discrimination.2 However, com-
placency has a price. Failure to address gender pay inequalities has led to a stream of
high profile litigation in the UK and the US. The resulting multimillion compensation
awards reported in the press have kept the subject of gender pay inequalities in the
public eye and one that governments and organisations ignore at a high cost (Deakin
et al. this issue; Butler 2012; Blau and Kahn 2007: 849).
Given the range and extent of change in addressing gender pay inequalities since
the introduction of statutory change over forty years ago, we considered it timely to
look back on these developments and evaluate their effects. With this purpose in mind
the CJE held an international symposium in Cambridge in June 2013 to prepare this
special issue. The collection of papers presented here look back on early achievements
and their legacies; they evaluate subsequent legislation and its impact, identifying
where on-going barriers to equal pay persist or new inequalities become more appar-
ent. They also provide an international and comparative perspective on initiatives to
implement equality legislation and equal pay, in countries with very different patterns

2
Comments by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in October 2014 provide one example of a rather compla-
cent expectation when he suggested that, rather than ask for a pay rise, which was bad karma, women should
‘trust in the system’. Reaction to this went viral. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-echochambers-29578265

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 Equal Pay as a Moving Target   303
of female labour force participation, skills and wage setting environments. The articles
in this collection examine specific dimensions of these debates in different institutional
contexts, illustrating the extensive and multi-disciplinary approaches that have been
employed to examine evolving gender pay gaps.
To facilitate our understanding of the breadth of debates concerned with equal pay
over the past forty years the contributions here are organised around four key themes:
1. Theoretical and conceptual debates;
2. Legal developments and their impacts;
3. Wage setting institutions and changing employer demands; and
4. Newly emerging pay inequalities between and within educational and ethnic
groups.
In this introductory article we provide an overview of the papers in this special issue
around these four themes. We summarises some of the policy implications and iden-
tify directions for future research in this area. On the basis of the evidence presented
here we argue that this collection of papers presents a picture of gender pay inequality
as a dynamic and moving target, or what Rubery and Grimshaw (this issue) describe
as ‘moving goal posts’. The range of papers included reveal how accounting for the
causes of this gap have changed over time; they illustrate the problems of measuring
and comparing this gap between different groups of workers; and they identify how
policy responses to reduce the gap have changed over time in different institutional
contexts. Inequalities in pay have evolved as actors and power relations shift, as new
lines of segmentation have led to new contours of disadvantage, and as organisations
have adopted new approaches to legal frameworks and the organisation of work.

2. Overview of the themes and articles

2.1 Theme 1: Theoretical and conceptual approaches
Explanations for the gender pay gap have come from a number of different disciplinary
fields. Rubery and Grimshaw (this issue) distinguish between four distinct analytical
approaches: economic, sociological, organisational and institutional. They argue that
each approach focuses on different factors as to the causes of inequality in men and
women’s pay. These different causes imply different solutions as to how to reduce this
gap. However, they argue that with the changing structure of employment and qualifi-
cation attainment, the goal posts to achieve gender pay equality are constantly moving.
Economic approaches to understanding the gender pay gap have traditionally focused
on women’s lack of investment in human capital, measured in terms of educational
attainment and preference for lower commitment jobs that, it is assumed, will allow
them to combine work and family responsibilities (Becker 1985). While increased edu-
cational attainment has provided access to higher status and better-paid jobs for some
women, it has not narrowed the gender pay gap as much as one might have expected
(Smith 2012; Peetz this issue, Figueiredo et al. this issue and Schulze this issue).
Sociological explanations place more emphasis on the way pay reflects social status.
Historically women’s wages were often seen as a surplus or supplementary income to
that of the male breadwinner (von Oertzen 2007; Siltanen 1994). However, Muzio and
Tomlinson (2012) have argued that the inclusion of professional women in more senior
positions has not necessarily been associated with more equal treatment in terms of pay.

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 304   O’Reilly et al.
In fact what we may be seeing are new forms of segregation as women move into occupa-
tions whose traditional higher status is becoming less valued (Crompton and Lyonette
2011; Rubery and Grimshaw this issue). Economists, such as Myck and Paull (2004) find
that the return women receive for their increased experience actually declines over time.
Organisational explanations for pay equalities draw attention to job evaluation and
grading schemes and the associated bonus regimes awarded to particular groups of
workers (Corby 1999; Davies et al. this issue). In addition patterns of occupational
segregation can exacerbate the gender pay gap (Burchell et al. 2014). Reskin and Roos
(1984) illustrate how female-dominated occupations tend not to have extensive job
ladders to higher paid and better qualified jobs. Female-dominated sectors tend to be
associated with lower rates of pay in general.
Institutional perspectives give greater weight to the impact of labour market regula-
tion. These approaches have been associated with dual labour market and segmentation
theory where exclusionary practices have been reinforced by trade unions protecting
insiders’ status and reinforcing labour market segmentation (Rubery 1978); although
unions have also contributed to more inclusive practices that involve reducing the
gender pay gap, as contributions to this special issue show (Guillaume, Deakin et al.).
In addition, a raft of anti-discriminatory legislation has sought to remove practices of
overt discrimination along the lines of gender, race, disability and age. Institutional
and segmentation approaches’ emphasise employment regulation and the vested inter-
ests of insiders. The degree to which the barriers between different groups of workers
are porous, or impermeable, and how these have changed over time, in particular faced
with the potential threat of litigation (Deakin et al. this issue) or the role of human
resource initiatives (Dobbin 2009) varies between societies.
Focusing more on the regulatory dimension Peetz (this issue) takes a slightly different
approach to developing an analytical framework to understand the gender pay gap. He
develops the concept of ‘regulation distance’ where employment is (un)regulated through
collective agreements, legislation or other means. Regulation distance can be understood
as a continuum between ‘regulation proximity’ and ‘market proximity’. The latter does not
necessarily reduce pay inequalities as these can be tempered by gendered norms including
under-valuation, labour segmentation, human and social capital as well as public sector
and union effects. Based on empirical evidence from Australia he argues that this frame-
work illustrates how gender pay inequalities exist for groups that are both close to insti-
tutional regulation of the labour market and those with jobs subject to a market-based
regulation. In fact the jobs subject to market-based regulation underline how non-pay
aspects of gendered experience at work help explain why the gender pay gap is greatest for
a group of women with the most labour market power, those amongst elite occupations.
The theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence discussed in Theme 1 of this
special issue illustrate the range of different explanatory approaches as to the causes
of gender pay inequality and how significant labour market changes over the past forty
years have made the goal of reducing pay inequalities a moving target. While some
equal pay cases have levelled up low-paid women’s work, bringing it more in line with
comparable male workers, weaker groups of men at the lower end of the income distri-
bution have been subject to the levelling down of their pay (Smith 2012; Deakin et al.
this issue; Rubery and Grimshaw this issue).
The role of the key actors in these developments is contested. Trends in some coun-
tries towards adversarial litigation to resolve these inequalities reflect the weakness
of trade unions in wage setting institutions and their ability to negotiate equal pay

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 Equal Pay as a Moving Target   305
settlements, according to Conley (2013). While legal enactment has put pressure on
firms to update their pay practices, Dobbin (2009) suggests that the human resource
management profession has been a more effective agent of change than courts or pub-
lic officials. By contrast, Deakin et al. (this issue) show that litigation, while costly in
terms of resources, and in the adversarialism that it generates, may help remedy long-
standing injustices. The tensions between negotiated and contested equality battles are
examined in Theme 2 looking at the impact of legal developments in European and
Australian cases.

2.2 Theme 2: Legal developments and their impacts

Compared to other European countries, there is a comparatively high recourse to liti-
gation strategies in the UK (Fuchs 2013; Klarsfeld et al. 2012). Guillaume (this issue)
examines the variety of strategies adopted by British trade unions to achieve equal pay
and how these have changed over time. Pursuing cases through the courts has gone
alongside negotiating large-scale collective agreements in the public sector and partici-
pating in job evaluations in the private sector. Her analysis draws attention to different
power relations between workers affected by these negotiations and job evaluations.
When negotiations either reproduce wage differentials, or fail to address existing
inequalities between workers fairly, new forms of conflict mobilization between these
workers are generated (Kahn and Meehan, 1992; Acker 1989). Unions often have
difficulty in resolving potential inter-worker conflicts (McLaughlin, 2014; Fredman,
2008; McCrudden, 2007). Guillaume’s analysis illustrates how litigation strategies
are embedded in power relations within organizations and interact with ‘institutional-
ized gendered conceptions of work’ (see also Peetz; Rubery and Grimshaw this issue). She
argues that the disruption created by equal pay litigation between different groups of
workers illustrates why trade union mobilization over equal pay in the UK has been
uneven. In the early days they had both the time and money to provide support struc-
tures, and in later periods they had the legal knowledge gained from experience. But,
although union strategies have been inconsistent at times, the repeated action of a few
key trade unionists has been significant.
The recent emergence of no-win no-fee lawyers as significant actors in the UK is
examined by Deakin, Fraser Butlin, McLaughlin and Polanska. They analyse a series of
high profile cases in the context of a theoretical discussion of the relationship between
pay regulation through comparing collective bargaining, on the one hand, and statutory
measures and contestation through individual cases of litigation on the other.They argue
that legislation to reduce inequality is not inevitably limited in its impact on employers.
Deploying quantitative and qualitative empirical evidence, they demonstrate the emerg-
ing relationship between the system of collective bargaining and the litigation process:
in various ways, they argue, collective bargaining and litigation are complements, not
substitutes, for one another. They provide a broad historical analysis of developments
in the field including research from equal value cases. Their analysis suggests that the
effectiveness of the legislation, as measured by litigation rates and by the ability of the
courts to adjust the law to reflect new problems as they came before them, has risen
and fallen over time. Although there have been periods when the law has stalled and
litigation rates fell away, there have also been times, as recently, of rapid change in the
content of the law, coupled with a rise in the volume of claims. This is not to say that the
effects of mass litigation are all positive. Empirical evidence drawn from both tribunal
data and interviews with key actors illustrates the difficult ‘nettle’ these cases posed

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for the trade unions in a context where the implementation of equality implied cuts in
the pay of male workers and where compensation claims appeared to put the financial
stability of public sector employers at risk. Their study recognises growing adversarial-
ism in pay bargaining, uncertainty for employers and the deadweight costs of litigation
as the dark side of law-centred strategy. But they also acknowledge that litigation has
delivered ‘tangible gains’ for highly disadvantaged groups.
Examining how the ideology of economics and its interpretation of value and worth
are understood in specialist and non-specialist circles Austen and Jefferson (this issue)
draw on evidence presented to an industrial tribunal for Fair Work Australia. They
highlight the different logics and arguments used as evidence in these cases. They
argue that the emphasis on mathematical economists’ methods of evaluation deflects
attention from underlying ideological assumptions about gendered patterns of work
and pay, a point made in the papers from Guillaume, Peetz, and Rubery and Grimshaw
(this issue). Austen and Jefferson have a positive assessment of the value of challenging
these economic assumptions and underlying norms in public debate as a means to
improve policy decisions and highlight the ‘need for pluralism in economic research’.
A more skeptical assessment of legal instruments, also based on the Australian
experience, is offered by Charlesworth and Macdonald (this issue). They examine the
potential effectiveness of the Workplace Gender Equality Act that was introduced in
2012 following on from the Fair Work Act 2009. This legislation created the potential
capacity to improve pay equity across large sectors of the labour market; however,
its achievements were more limited. According to Charlesworth and Macdonald the
failure of the law was largely due to the lack of consistent political commitment to
achieving gender equality and a lack of integration between legislation and policy at
the labour market, sectoral, workplace and individual levels. Drawing on comparisons
from Canada and the UK, they conclude that pay inequity is likely to persist because
of these inconsistencies.
Peruzzi (this issue) picks up the theme of inconsistencies in the EU policies regarding the
gender pay gap within a labour law perspective. He examines the evolution of EU policy
approaches towards equal pay and suggest it has gone full-circle. In part this is because of
a reduced commitment to the issue inside and outside the Employment Strategy, and in
part this is because of a change of location of the related institutional competences within
the European Commission. The Commission has placed greater emphasis on individual-
centred dimensions of equality claims, at the expense of the truly collective meaning of
the equality principle. Peruzzi also highlights the misalignments and shortcomings of the
unadjusted gender pay gap indicator currently used by Eurostat in respect to the legal
discourse elaborated in the context of EU antidiscrimination law. Using the Italian case
he examines two recommendations of the European Parliament and the position of the
European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). His analysis focuses on the contradic-
tions between EU support for the role of the social partners in tackling the gender pay gap
and the push for a decentralisation of collective bargaining prompted by the EU policies
to address the labour market consequences of the austerity crisis.
Summing up, these papers suggest that while it is not straightforward to draw general
lessons from the varied national experiences of law-centred approaches, some themes
emerge. In the right context, litigation can address entrenched injustices, and can be
used by trade unions and other actors to trigger institutional change. But litigation is
unlikely to be effective without complementary processes and mechanisms for address-
ing pay inequalities, in particular collective bargaining.The pursuit of litigation strategies

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 Equal Pay as a Moving Target   307
is highly dependent on the characteristics of the wage setting environments and institu-
tions (see the papers in Theme 3 for extensive analysis of these dimensions). Comparing
the effects of different institutions between countries and sectors and between differ-
ent groups of workers in the light of legal differences is revealing. On the one hand,
the fragmentation and decentralisation of the wage setting environment, alongside the
diminishing role of trade unions and social actors promoting equal pay, makes it more
difficult to enforce pay equality. On the other hand, where certain groups of workers
are less well integrated into these wage-setting arrangements because of the effects of
labour market segmentation, the effects of the gender pay gap may be exacerbated to a
greater or lesser extent by employer practices (Davies et al. this issue).

2.3 Theme 3:Wage setting institutions and Employers Demands

The papers in this theme examine the impact of wage setting institutions and the
actions of employers in accounting for differences in the gender pay gap both within
the same country as well as between countries. These papers highlight the importance
of variations across sectors and organisations for different groups of women. Previous
research has demonstrated the that wage setting institutions have one of the strongest
affects in explaining international differences in the gender pay gap between different
countries. Gender pay gaps are linked to both the representation of women and men
at different points of the distribution and the form of wage distribution itself (Blau
and Kahn, 1992, 1997). Industrial relations institutions independently affect wage
gaps: more ‘inclusive’ systems including higher collective bargaining coverage, higher
union density, and universal low-wage protection schemes, have been shown to narrow
inequalities (e.g. Blau and Kahn, 2003; Kidd and Shannon, 1996; Whitehouse, 1992).
Using data from the European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions
(EU-SILC) Schäfer and Gottschall (this issue) explore how wages setting institutions in
25 European countries in different sectors impact upon wages differences for women
and men; they also provide an additional more detailed focus for Germany. Comparing
health, manufacturing and finance they confirm the existence of a substantial gender
wage gap in each sector. Wage penalties for female full-time workers are higher in the
more female-dominated sector of health, than in finance and manufacturing. They
argue that more inclusive industrial relations systems that include high collective bar-
gaining coverage, industry and/or economy-wide bargaining, and high levels of the
minimum wage, all contribute to closing the gender pay gap for female full-timers.
Complementing this European-wide analysis they provide a more in-depth study of
the German case using a database of linked employer-employee data to explore the
interaction of wage setting at the industry level on gender equity in living wages. The
results for Germany also indicate a substantial gender pay gap and wage penalty for
women working in a more female-dominated sector. The German results also support
the positive effects on wage levels of high coverage of workers by collective bargaining,
but they also reveal a high gender pay gap in living wages for full-time skilled work-
ers, particularly in West Germany. In contrast, low union coverage of workers in the
female-dominated health and social work sector is associated with lower earnings, a
higher share of employees working below a living wage, but also a lower gender pay
gap. This mixed picture of the effects of wage setting institutions underlines levelling
down of men’s experience at one end of the wage distribution and a failure to catch
up for women at the upper end (Smith 2012; Deakin et al. this issue; Rubery and
Grimshaw this issue).

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Comparing two very different wage setting institutions in Argentina and Chile,
Ugarte, Grimshaw and Rubery (this issue) investigate the impact of ‘inclusive’ versus
‘exclusive’ industrial relations systems in promoting gender wage equity and enabling
wage returns to women investing in higher education (Blau and Kahn, 1992; Mandel
and Semyonov, 2005). This cross-national comparison is particularly useful for shed-
ding light on the impact of different sets of institutional arrangements. Chile has a
higher level of wage inequality and a wider gender pay gap than Argentina. However,
over the last decade wage inequality has fallen in both countries and female employ-
ment has risen across all points of the wage structure. These similar trends in declining
wage inequality have occurred in spite of each country having quite different industrial
relations systems and quite distinctive histories of equal pay policies. The analysis of
these different institutional contexts underlines the role of the inclusive industrial rela-
tions system in narrowing Argentinian gender pay gap to a greater extent than in Chile.
For Chile the authors identify the high level statutory minimum wage as a force for
redistribution in the more exclusive industrial relations system. The impact of educa-
tional attainment discussed in more detail in Theme 4 is also found in both Argentina
and Chile. Both countries have witnessed both increased levels of educational attain-
ment among men and especially women, but also falling wage returns to education, for
both men and women. Using quantile regressions, the authors demonstrate that even
though there is a wider wage gap by educational attainment in Chile and a more class-
equal wage distribution in Argentina, it is actually highly educated Argentinian women
in high paid jobs that enjoy a larger wage premium.
In examining wage-setting institutions it is also the role of employers that need to be
considered in how organisational behaviour can shape the gender pay gap, depending
on the sectors firms are located in and their market orientation. Davies, McNabb and
Whitfield (this issue) address this concern using employer level data drawn from the 2004
and 2007 British Workplace Employment Relations Survey. The link between employer
behaviour and the gender wage gap is a much less well-research area than that of sectoral
comparisons or economy wide and cross-national studies. Davies et al.’s specific focus is
to examine the effect of ‘high performance work practices’ (HPWPs) on the gender pay
gap. Initial research into the behaviour of HPWPs were optimistic that the orientation
of these companies would provide fairer rewards for women because discrimination and
the under-utilisation of women’s potential would be irrational for these kinds of firms.
This paper shows the opposite effect: men’s pay rewards in these work environments
were better than women’s. With the benefits of hindsight this outcome is perhaps not at
all surprising. HPWPs are associated with high levels of work intensity, making it even
harder for those with heavy domestic workloads (i.e. mostly women) to compete on a
level playing field whilst maintaining some semblance of healthy work-life integration.
However, Davies et al. also show that HPWPs, as well as being a fuzzy and poorly defined
concept, are not particularly coherent from a gender perspective either. There are some
features of HPWPs that seem to benefit women more than men, for instance through
flexible working practices and higher levels of autonomy. However, other dimensions
such as incentive schemes used to maximise individual motivation and encourage higher
levels of work intensity, appear to reward male workers more in these organisations.
In sum, the analysis of wage setting environments presented in these papers and the
illustrations of how they vary both between countries, between sectors and between
organisations in the same country underline how recent research identifies the nuanced
discrepancies that aggregate analysis can sometimes overlook. These results draw our

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 Equal Pay as a Moving Target   309
attention to the fact that in some cases the gender pay gap may be diminishing for
particular groups of women, while in other areas this trend is less apparent. The papers
in Theme 4 illustrate these differences for both very high and poorly qualified labour
market entrants and ethnic groups. One of the research challenges for the future that
emerges from the results presented here is the need for more fine-grained analysis of
specific sectors and groups of workers that can take account of specific and different
factors that serve as obstacles in reducing existing gender pay gaps (Whitehouse 2001).
Some of the new factors that need to be taken into account are attributable to how
dynamic new forms of segmentation are emerging in relation both to changing skills
and qualifications of available labour, as well as differences reflected in the increasing
ethnic diversity visible in many advanced economies in the past forty years.

2.4 Theme 4: Newly emerging pay inequalities between and within educational and
ethnic groups
The last four papers explore differences in the gender pay gap between different seg-
ments of the labour market where educational and ethnic markers of social status and
integration are at their most extreme. Two papers, Figueiredo et al. and Schulze, look
specifically at highly educated employees while the papers by O’Higgins, and Erne and
Imboden focus on ethnic differences.
Figueiredo et al. concentrate on three southern European countries, namely Portugal,
Spain and Italy. Comparative frameworks tend to categorise these countries as very simi-
lar set of southern welfare states, but they exhibit very different patterns of female labour
force participation and experience in terms of the gender pay gap, as illustrated in Table 1.
The pay gap in Italy and Portugal has tended to be significantly lower than in Spain; par-
ticipation rates in Portugal have tended to be much higher where Portuguese women are
also more likely to work full-time; and in both Spain and Italy mothers have much more
difficulty of accessing paid employment than in Portugal. Despite these differences, what
these countries do have in common is a significant increase in the proportion of young
women graduating from universities. Figueiredo et al.’s comparisons of older and younger
men and women remind us of how much change there has been in eliminating male
educational advantages that were held to be so central to explaining the gender wage gap
forty years ago. But, rather than creating a uniform set of new gender-balanced gradu-
ate jobs, there emerges two separate streams of predominantly male graduate jobs and
female graduate jobs. Figueiredo et al. demonstrate this neatly in creating ‘job groups’ by
cross-tabulating industry (NACE) and occupation (ISCO). They argue that gender pay
gaps are being perpetuated by a higher proportion of female graduates describing them-
selves as being over-qualified for their jobs (i.e. stating that their job could be done by
a non-graduate). These results are confirmed using standard decomposition techniques
to test the implications of controlling for selection bias. However, this description is a
simplification: the authors show that these effects are different in the public and private
sector, women and men are differentially affected by fixed-term and temporary jobs, and
the pay penalties associated with over qualification varies between countries, as well as by
gender. Overall, this paper is a classic case of Rubery and Grimshaw’s argument about
‘moving goalposts’. Campaigners for equal pay in 1975 would have been thrilled at the
way in which women’s education has completely caught up, or overtaken, men’s educa-
tional attainment, but they probably did not suspect that the gender pay gap would be so
resilient or recreated in the face of these changes.

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A further more focused analysis of the gender pay gap amongst very highly qualified
doctoral graduates in the UK is provided by Schulze. Her examination of the gender
pay gap for this group, six and 42 months after graduation, is refreshingly simple to
understand. For those starting work in academia, the gap between men and women is
minimal, at this stage; although we know that it increases over time. Female doctoral
graduates who decide to work outside academia are less likely to benefit from the
higher wage rates awarded to their male equivalents. Male doctoral graduates receive
markedly higher pay than for all of the other groups of recent graduates. The paper
does not deliver an explanation for this very specific phenomenon, but at least we
know where to start looking for an explanation of this employer/sector effect on men’s
relative pay advantage. It is probably no coincidence that this paper stands out in this
special issue in two important respects: the sample is the most homogeneous, and the
results are very stark. In the absence of consistent rules that govern the gender pay gap
for all labour market conditions, perhaps the most actionable research will come in
the future from examining specific types of workers and trends in their pay gaps over
longer periods of time in different sectors.
Turning to the experience of workers at the other end of the educational and social
spectrum, O’Higgins examines the circumstances on Roma in central and south-east-
ern Europe, where they are the largest minority ethnic group, and one where a signifi-
cant proportion have no formal education, in contrast to non-Roma. In this respect
they are so different from the rest of society that conventional decomposition analyses
are inappropriate method to compare gender pay gaps. While there have been many
qualitative studies of labour market disadvantage amongst Roma, and Roma women in
particular, there have been virtually no attempts to quantify the gender pay gap for this
group. Using a unique dataset that disproportionately samples Roma and non-Roma
in Central and South East Europe, and a non-parametric one-to-many matching tech-
nique, O’Higgins’ paper fills that gap in the literature. He finds that the pay gap is
wider between Roma men and women than non-Roma men and women, giving Roma
women a particularly large double disadvantage in comparison to Roma men and to
the non-Roma. Part of this can be attributed to the very low educational attainment
attributed to many Roma men and women, and part can be linked to occupational and
industrial segregation, socio-economic status as well as the impact of living in a Roma
community. Somewhat surprisingly, the high rates of informal employment amongst
the Roma seem to be unrelated to the low pay for Roma. Much of the pay gap cannot
be explained in the statistical models; some of it is probably discrimination by employ-
ers, but it could well be attributable to other factors or reverse causation. Nevertheless,
the fact that such extreme double-disadvantage of Roma women comes towards the
end of a period of policy making focussed on addressing these disadvantages during
the ‘Roma decade’ (2005–2015) is a reminder of the very entrenched nature of gen-
der pay gaps amongst disadvantaged groups, despite policy attempts to address these
inequalities.
Pay inequalities between different groups of workers, other than women, has been
increasingly receiving attention especially in terms of comparing pay differentials
between ethnic groups and those with disabilities (Longhi et al. 2009 and 2013; Brynin
and Güveli 2012; Jones et al. 2014). Contributing to a vein of this research, the final
paper in this collection compares the treatment of women and migrants in Switzerland.
Erne and Imboden (this issue) highlight the possibilities for heterogeneous outcomes
within a unique institutional context. Using Quantitative Comparative Analysis the

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 Equal Pay as a Moving Target   311
authors track the implementation of the two policies to address wage inequalities. The
first, the Swiss Gender Equality Act (1996) sought to address the gender wage gap;
the second ‘Accompanying measures’ to the EU/CH agreements on the free move-
ment of workers (1999) sought to ensure equal pay for migrant workers following the
opening of the Swiss labour market to the EU. Erne and Imboden’s analysis underlines
the importance of different policy discourses for different groups of male, female and
ethnic workers. The comparison of these two policies also illustrates how the measures
for migrant workers were decisively more effective in achieving equal pay outcomes
when compared to the Gender Equality Act. Since both cases are located in the same
institutional framework the authors are able to highlight the limitations of explanations
drawn from the Varieties of Capitalism approach when we observe diverse outcomes,
within the same socio-economic space, for different groups of workers. Rather the dif-
ferent frames of reference in the policy discourse of the various actors including trade
unions and women’s organisations, employer associations and government are identi-
fied as important factors in understanding these different outcomes. The contestation
between different regulatory strategies, liberal or neo-corporatist, adopted by these
actors help explain the unequal implementation of equal pay policies between these
groups of workers.
The papers in this final theme illustrate how initial concerns with addressing ‘equal
pay for women’ have become more complex and diverse in the last forty years. This
reflects a number of factors related both to changing labour market structures in
terms of the increased diversity and the skills of available labour, as well as the chang-
ing organisation of firms, wage setting institutions and performance reward systems.
Alongside this increasing fragmentation and diversification we have also seen attempts
to introduce new forms legislation and equality rights being contested and claimed,
albeit through a variety of discourses dependent on the constellation of actors and
their relative importance within different jurisdictions.

3. Implications for Future Research and Public Policy

This special issue was inspired by the fortieth anniversary of the implementation of the
Equal Pay Act in the UK and the 1975 European Directives on equal pay – momen-
tous events in the campaign for equal pay. In bringing together this collection of papers
to evaluate the impact of policies and emerging trends in the gender pay gap we have
drawn on a range of international experiences, as well as contemporary evidence from
the UK. The inter-disciplinary approaches to this topic include those of labour lawyers,
economists, sociologists and those working on the boarders of industrial relations and
management studies. These diverse approaches identify a range of different explana-
tory factors accounting for why the gender pay gap exists, how it is changing and what
needs to be done to reduce it. From the evidence presented here we have identified three
key dimensions shaping these debates: i) litigation and collective bargaining strategies;
ii) wage setting institutions and organisational practices; and iii) new forms of gender
pay inequalities based on labour market segmentation, particularly linked to educational
attainment and ethnicity. These key dimensions mark out signals on the research land-
scape that we expect will direct future research agendas on this issue. This evidence base
could inform the types of policies designed to reduce gender pay inequality in the future.
First, if we look at where policies have been successful and why, we can see that
where collective wage setting institutions have been weakened, litigation has had huge

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 312   O’Reilly et al.
benefits to the tens of thousands of female workers whose pay has been brought into
line with that of comparable male workers, or who have been compensated for unfair
pay systems in the past. While there has been a tangible gain for some of these work-
ers, there are also a number of downsides to these experiences of litigation and its
implementation. Interpretations vary been those of Guillaume and Deakin et al. who
recognise that the key actors include not only lawyers and unions who take these cases,
or the HR managers who Dobbin claims have critically advanced the equality agenda,
but also include government policies at national and international/EU level that set the
parameters within which these legal cases are fought. However the role of institutions
impacting upon groups of workers remains strong, for example in the role of minimum
wages in helping to close the gender pay gaps at the lower-end of the labour market.
Nevertheless, the impact and coverage of legislative approaches is far from guaranteed
as a conclusive instrument to help remove gender pay gaps.
Second, from examining wage-setting institutions and organisational practices in
different environments we saw that while the effects of institutions clearly vary by
country, this often belies a level of complexity when we start to explore below the
national level. The evidence from a number of different institutional contexts around
the world point to the positive benefits of an institutionally based approach and a
centralisation of wage-setting address wage inequalities. But, even in countries where
wage-setting institutions were strong, gender pay gaps vary by sector and different cat-
egories of workers. The extent to which pay gaps close for particular groups of workers
depends on the specific constellation of institutions and the policy trajectories they
adopt. How the gender pay gap affects different groups of workers varies depending
on how well they are integrated into these systems, and to what degree these systems
protect and promote their interests.
Third, by comparing the interaction between and within educational and ethnic groups
these papers were able to illustrate how educational attainment does not appear to be
having the same level of impact that was the case in earlier periods immediately follow-
ing on from the establishment of statutory measures. While educational attainment is
clearly a valuable and rewarded distinction on the labour market, new forms of gender
inequality are emerging in particular amongst the most highly qualified and highly paid.
Furthermore, differences persist in how women and men are rewarded for their invest-
ment in higher levels of education. At the other end of the scale, those with very limited,
if any, qualifications, as in the case of the Roma women, are particularly disadvantaged
by their lack of educational credentials and the way this confines them to working in
particularly disadvantaged sectors. For other ethnic groups pay penalties appear to have
been less severe (Brynin and Güveli 2012). This is dependent on the relative educational
status of these workers, especially if they are recent migrants, or whether they are second-
generation citizens (Zuccotti 2014). This is an area of research that is gradually receiving
increased attention (Longhi et al. 2009) and one that we have only touched on briefly in
this collection of papers. As demographic trends and new patterns of migration contrib-
ute to workforce diversity these will emerge as new areas of research and policy on the pay
equality agenda; the intersection with gender inequalities will be of great interest in terms
of how new inequalities emerge and the extent to which traditional ones are reinforced
or diminish.
Future research agendas will need to address the dynamic environment in which
the gender pay gap is regulated and determined. This will require a focus on gender
pay gaps within and across particular groups, as well as monitoring aggregate trends.

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 Equal Pay as a Moving Target   313
Additionally, a wider reflection on the suitable measures and methods required to mon-
itor the pay gap will also be required and a critical reflection on the appropriateness of
so-called adjusted and unadjusted measures. Similarly policy makers will be required
to adopt a more nuanced approach that recognises the need for vigilance for new and
emerging pay gaps as novel forms of work emerge. The relative advantages, or disad-
vantages, of different labour market groups wax and wane over time forcing labour
market actors to reassess their positions on pay equality. Policy makers will also need
to recognise that the easy gains of the past need to be built upon by innovative and
focused measures rather than complacency. As some of the papers here indicate, com-
placency can be very costly for organisations. Innovative measures may include closer
attention to the behaviour of employers, monitoring the impact of wider economic and
labour market policy for unintended consequences on gender pay gaps and measures to
address pay gaps at the top end, as well as across the wage distribution through greater
transparency and the need for compulsory gender pay audits (Government Equalities
Office 2014).
In conclusion, the three key dimensions that emerge from the papers presented here are
first the relationship between litigation and bargaining strategies; second the interaction
between wage-setting institutions and new organisational practices; and third the increas-
ing diversity or equality strands competing for equal treatment. We might conclude that
in the shadow of high profile litigation on women’s pay and the modernisation of HR and
diversity management, these have contributed to some significant improvements. We have
also seen that the demands for equal pay between men and women needs to be contex-
tualised, not only in relation to broader increased income disparities, but also in relation
to the continued effects of the recent financial and economic crisis (Karamessini and
Rubery 2014). As indicated in our opening analysis, gender pay gaps vary enormously
between economically advanced countries, and while there has been a trend for this gap
to fall, in some countries these achievements have been reversed, in particular since 2008
and the prolonged economic crisis. The long-term consequences of this recent period of
economic difficulty are likely to create significant obstacles in addressing pay inequalities
for particular segments of workers who have experienced wage stagnation or a fall in the
relative value of their earnings (Eurofound 2014). But this trend will vary in intensity
between countries and different segments of workers. Rubery and Grimshaw (this issue)
suggest that in these circumstances of financial austerity, interest in addressing equal pay
may no longer be a central concern to organisations. Monitoring and enforcement are
more difficult in periods of economic turbulence, and especially for managerial categories
with more individually negotiated pay settlements. However, the fact that many men now
fall into sub-living wage conditions associated with female-dominated sectors may create
political pressure for action to raise wages at the lowest-end of the wage distribution and
thus impact upon gender pay gaps in the future.
The evidence presented here not only illustrates the achievements of legislation,
actors and polices as well as the autonomous behaviour of women themselves, but also
how the goal posts for achieving equal pay for women have moved over the past forty
years. Demands for equal pay now encompass a broader and more diverse range of
players, some who are having more success than others, depending on who they are
compared with. Blau and Kahn’s (2007) analysis of the US labour market prior to the
Great Recession suggested that even after a relatively long period of economic stabil-
ity during the 1990s, current gaps in gender pay are possibly ‘as good as it gets’; any
further improvements will be at a slower pace, and may well be associated with greater

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 314   O’Reilly et al.
discrepancies between high and low-earning women. One aspect that we can perhaps
be sure of is that progress towards closing the gender pay gap will not be easy, will
require a collective effort of various actors, and will not be quick.

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