Equal pay and equal treatment at work (Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Recast Directive 2006/54)

• Author: Koldinská, Kristina
• Pages: 16-22

16

4 Equal pay and equal treatment at work (Article 157 of the Treaty on the

Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Recast D irective 2006/54)

4.1 General (legal) context

4.1.1 Surveys on the gender pay gap and the difficulties of realising equal pay

The following recent studies on the gender pay gap may be of interest:

The study Gender pay gap – a problem for all of us19 shows how the problem of pay

inequalities is perceived by the Czech public as well as by individual expert groups which

address this issue. It also includes personal experiences of people in specific labour

market environments. As the first such publication in the Czech context, it also maps the

perspectives of individual actors on wage bargaining, monitoring and possible solutions

to unequal pay. In addition to perspectives of employers and workers, it also includes

the viewpoint of the state and its legislative and control bodies, such as th e State Labour

Inspection Office, the Labour Office, trade unions and unions, employers’ organisations

and the Public Defender of Rights Office. The book also provides recommendations for

addressing the gender pay gap at national level as well as in the public administration,

education and private sectors.

The study Gender pay gap in the Czech Republic20 presented th e following key findings.

The Czech Republic is a country with one of the highest levels of pay inequalities

between women and men in the same working position and at the same workplace.

While in Western European countries the gender pay gap for the same job and for work

of the same valu e is 5 %, wom en in the Czech Republic are paid on average 11 % less

than men for the same job with the same employer.

The widest gender pay gap sorted by level of education can be found between men and

women with university or high school education and this even applies to the pay gap in

the case of equal work with the same employer (10 %). The pay gap between

university-educated women and men has increased in the past 10 years.

The comparison of the public and private sectors shows that gender pay gaps are

generally lower in the public sector, but they are still significant there. The salaries of

women and men performing the same work for the same employer in the public sector

differ on average by 5 %, as compared to a pay gap which is roughly double this in the

private sphere.

Differences can be found in different areas of the labour market: in the financial and

insurance sectors and in the construction sector, the gender pay gap is very wide;

women in these sectors receive 17 % or 14 % less th an men working in the same job. In

contrast, women receive 5-6 % less than men working in the sam e job in the education

and administration sectors.

The average gender pay gap between women a nd men aged 25 to 55 was approximately

26 % in 2016.

The diff erences in the individual positions and characteristics of men and women, such

as leadership, full-time jobs, education, age, etc., account for only 0.54 percentage

19 Kížková, A., Marková Volejníčková, R., Vohlídalová, M. (2018), Genderové nerovnosti v odmování:

problém nás všech (Gender pay gap – a problem for all of us). Sociologický ústav AV ČR: Praha. Available

at: www.soc.cas.cz/publikace/genderove-nerovnosti-v-odmenovani-problem-nas-vsech.

20 Kížková, A., Pospíšilová, K., Maíková, H., Marková Volejníčková, R. (2018), Rozdíly v odmování žen a

muž v ČR (Gender pay gap in the Czech Republic), MPSV: Praha. Available at:

www.mpsv.cz/files/clanky/35208/Studie_c.2_pro_web.pdf.