What slips through the cracks: The distance between regulations and practices shaping the gender pay gap

Summary

The paper, "What slips through the cracks: The distance between regulations and practices shaping the gender pay gap," authored by Núria Sánchez-Mira, Raquel Serrano Olivares, and Pilar Carrasquer Oto, examines the critical disconnect between formal regulations aimed at achieving gender pay equality and the actual practices within various organizational settings. Published in *Economic and Industrial Democracy* in 2022, the research seeks to identify regulatory gaps contributing to gender inequalities in pay, understand the mismatch between regulation and its implementation, and uncover the factors accounting for such discrepancies. The core premise is that despite the existence of regulations, the gender pay gap persists due to nuances in how these regulations are interpreted and applied in everyday work life. Methodologically, the study adopts an interdisciplinary approach to analyze how the regulation of work organization, particularly within collective bargaining, manifests in practices across different sectors in Spain. By comparing the chemical industry, financial services, and elderly care sectors, the authors provide a nuanced understanding of how institutional and organizational determinants of the gender pay gap are embedded within distinct contexts. This comparative, multi-sectoral lens allows the researchers to reveal specific "constellations of intertwining inequalities" that emerge at the sectoral level, demonstrating that the effectiveness of regulations is not uniform but heavily influenced by the particularities of each industry. The approach moves beyond examining single dimensions of work organization to provide a holistic view of the complex interplay between formal rules and informal practices. The findings indicate that significant gaps exist between gender pay gap regulations and their practical implementation, leading to persistent inequalities. The research reveals that different work organization contexts translate regulations into diverse practices, which in turn shape the gender pay gap differently across sectors. For instance, while some sectors might have robust formal policies, informal workplace cultures or specific industry dynamics can undermine their effectiveness. The study concludes that collective bargaining strategies aimed at closing the gender pay gap must not only address problematics specific to each context but also advocate for reforms in key cross-cutting issues within statutory regulation. This suggests that a multifaceted approach, tackling both macro-level legislative frameworks and micro-level organizational practices, is essential for truly bridging the gender pay gap.