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)

AuthorKrstic, Ivana
Pages26-36
26
4 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)
4.1 General (legal) context
4.1.1 Surveys on the gender pay gap and the difficulties of realising equal pay
There are some surveys on the gender pay gap in Serbia.
Under the Gender Pay Gap analyses done in 2013 for Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro,
it was found that, on average, women have lower wages than men. In Serbia the gap is
at 3.3 % as the so-called unadjusted wage gap.75 However, the true gap is higher and
when personal labour market characteristics are taken into account, the gap in Serbia rises
to 11 %.
In 2014, the data of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, published in the book
Women and Men in Serbia 2014, very illustratively shows that women, in almost all
sectors, are paid less than men for the same work. The biggest difference is in the financial
sector and insurance activities where the salary of women, for the same position, is
RSD 91 144 (EUR 765), while the salary of men is RSD 120 518 (EUR 1 010). It is
paradoxical that even in the healthcare and social protection sectors, where women
represent most of the employees, the salary of a woman is approximately RSD 15 463
(EUR 130) lower than the earnings of men. In the wholesale trade and retail trade sector
the pay gap is about RSD 20 000 (EUR 170) against women.76
The results of the study The Pay Gap between Women and Men’, conducted in 2015,
shows that employed women in Serbia earn 11 % less than men. By comparing the
earnings of women and men of the same education, work experience and vocations, the
authors of this study concluded that women in Serbia would have to work an additional 40
days a year in order to earn as much as men with the same characteristics on the labour
market.77
Also, in one analysis it was highlighted that there is a lack of mechanisms for respecting
the principle of equal pay, as human resources of the Labour Inspectorate are scarce, its
control of the respect of the labour laws is weak, so violations of labour rights and gender
equality are frequent.78 Also, during the trainings with labour inspectorates, they very
often claim that the gender pay gap does not exist in Serbia. However, the majority of
students at Belgrade University, in one questionnaire, respondents believe that gender
pay exists in Serbia (54.6 % male students and 45.4 % female students).79 Also, some
organisations claim that the gender pay gap is rising and is not the subject of any policy
in Serbia.80
The final report on the evaluation of the Action Plan for Gender Equality Strategy shows
that the gender pay gap is 8.7 %.81
75 Gender Pay Gap in the Western Balkans Countries: Evidence from Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia,
FREN, Policy Brief, 2013, http://ebooks.ien.bg.ac.rs/579/.
76 Women and Men in Serbia 2014, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, 2014.
77 The pay gap between women and men, Foundation for the Advancement of Economics, Belgrade, 2015.
78 Dokmanović, . (2016), Gender Analysis for Serbia, IPA - NEAR, 21.
79 Stavovi studenata Univerziteta u Beogradu o rodnoj ravnopravnosti u Republici Srbiji, (Attitudes of students
of the Belgrade University on gender equality in the Republic of Serbia), Centre for international public
policy, Belgrade, 2019, p. 19 available at http://cmjp.rs/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Izveštaj.pdf.
80 Shadow report to the CEDAW regarding the fourth reporting cycle of Serbia, Priorities and
Recommendations for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in Serbia, SOS Vojvodina Network,
2019, https://udruzenjeromanb.org.rs/images/vesti/2019/CEDAW-Shadow-Report-SOSV-Network-
2019.pdf.
81 Finalni izveštaj evaluacije Akcionog plana za sprovođenje Nacionalne strategije za rodnu ravnopravnost
Republike Srbije (Final report on the evaluation of the Action plan for the implementation of the National
Strategy for Gender Equality in the Republic of Serbia), SeCons, 2019, 31.

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