Challenging gender pay gaps:: organizational and regulatory strategies

Summary

The editorial "Challenging gender pay gaps: Organizational and regulatory strategies" by Milner, Pochic, Scheele, and Williamson, published in 2019, introduces a special issue of *Gender, Work & Organization*, providing an overarching framework for understanding the multifaceted issue of gender pay inequality. The authors underscore that despite decades of legal advancements promoting equal pay and significant improvements in women's educational attainment, a substantial gender pay gap persists across nearly all countries. This enduring inequality is attributed to multi-dimensional factors spanning economic, sociological, institutional, and organizational perspectives. The paper's conceptual approach, acting as an editorial, synthesizes existing knowledge and frames the contributions of the special issue. It implicitly critiques traditional understandings by highlighting the complexities involved in accurately measuring and diagnosing pay gaps, suggesting that a lack of clear and agreed-upon metrics can hinder effective intervention. A central argument revolves around the concept of "informational power" and its role in perpetuating gender pay inequalities, implying that control over data and narratives surrounding pay contributes to the difficulty of addressing these disparities. The authors also identify significant barriers to collective action, noting the challenges faced by trade unions in mobilizing against the gender pay gap in both public and private employment sectors. The implications drawn from this editorial are critical for both research and policy. It calls for scholarly inquiry that is acutely sensitive to specific occupational and organizational contexts, moving beyond generalized explanations. Furthermore, it emphasizes the need to understand both visible and "invisible" mechanisms through which gender is constructed and deconstructed within workplaces, impacting pay structures. The authors suggest that regulatory changes in work have, in some instances, inadvertently weakened women's labor market positions and exacerbated the gender pay gap in historically feminized public organizations. Ultimately, the editorial advocates for greater attention to the resources available to local bargaining actors as a crucial element in advancing an equality agenda. It implicitly argues that while the principle of "equal pay for work of equal value" holds radical potential, its application and impact remain uneven, necessitating a multiplicity of measures to dismantle the persistent reproduction of gender pay gaps.