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: Biljana Kotevska
• Pages: 25-31

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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

According to a CSO analysis ‘…women in Macedonia are paid мп.м % less than men before

adjusting for human capital characteristics. With the adjustments the gap increases to

19.2 а’.67 An econometric analysis by the ILO reveals the existence of a large gender pay

gap up to 19 % of the general wage and up to 28 % of the wage for non-qualified labour.68

The CPAD also conducted its own analysis, supported by the OSCE. It found that the

average sala ry paid out to men is EUR 323 (MKD 19 864), wh ereas the average salary

paid to women is EUR 237 (MKD 14 590).69

4.1.2 Surveys on the difficulties of realising equal treatment at work

A 2017 study of the participation of Roma women in the labour market confirmed that the

widespread ‘traditional views’ or simply ‘tradition’ is a major factor for exclusion of women

from the labour market, when looking at the case of Roma women. It found that traditional

views and attitudes feature onl y among the vi ews of some of the local self -government

representatives, whereas they do not feature among Roma women themselves. Roma

women, and the majority of inter viewees, including social service centres and the state

employment agency, a ll agree that the top reason for unemployment of Roma w omen is

discrimination, stereoty pes and prejudice. Anot her reason which featu res prominently is

lack of skills and formal education.70 The findings of th is study, compared t o the official

statistics on women in general, clearly point to the very particular ways in which

discrimination works and excludes Roma women from the labour market, compared to

other women.

4.1.3 Other issues

No other issues of particular difficulty can be singled out in relation to the application of

the principl e of equal pay for equal work and work of equal value in practice an d/or to

equal treatment at work.

4.1.4 Political and societal debate and pending legislati ve proposals

In addition to the analyses of the implementation of the GEL at the central and local levels

(see Section 3.1.4), the preparation of the new Labour Law is underway. While no text has

yet been put forward for pub lic discussion, CSOs have already pu blished demands as to

what the new law should contain. Reactor – Research in Action, has set four key demands:

(1) protection of pregnant workers who work on fixed-term contracts durin g pregnancy,

birth and parenthood; (2) the right to protection durin g pregnancy, birth and parenthood

for workers doing unpaid work and workers without formal employment contracts; (3) the

67 Vchkov, I. and Petreski, M. (2017), Gender and motherhood wage gaps in Macedonia, Finance Think,

available at: https://issuu.com/financethink/docs/gender_wage_and_motherhood_gaps_-_m.

68 Petreski, M. and Mojsoska Blazevski, N. (2015), The gender and motherhood wage gap in the former

Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: An econometric analysis, ILO, Working Paper 6/2015, available at:

www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---europe/---ro-geneva/---sro-

budapest/documents/publication/wcms_447699.pdf.

69 Ananiev, J. (2015),   -          

(Research report – Gender pay gap at the national level), CPAD and OSCE, available at:

https://www.osce.org/mk/mission-to-skopje/230251?download=true.

70 Luludi (2017),            (Participation of

Roma Women on the labour market in the Republic of Macedonia), available at: http://luludi.mk/wp-

content/uploads/2016/04/Luludi-Istrazuvanje-Finalna-verzija-MK-30052017_Web-version.pdf.