Mind the GAP! Joint actions of workers’ organisations for bridging the gender pay gap

The project “Mind the GAP! Joint actions of workers’ organisations for bridging the gender pay gap” is a partnership of 11 organisations from 10 different countries (Bulgaria, Italy, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Malta, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Poland, Belgium). The project beneficiary is the General Workers Union from Malta and this grant is funded by the European Union.

This important project answers questions about the gender pay gap across Europe, in both EU members and candidate countries. Mind the GAP is focused on several main objectives. 

These include: increasing the cooperation of participating countries in monitoring the EU’s pay transparency directive transposition, strengthening capabilities to use the collective bargaining by workers organizations to bridge the gender pay gap by means of online and offline trainings, enhancing worker’s organizations contribution to EU policy making (recommendations based on the works of monitoring teams, experts and workers organizations’ representatives), having more effective implementation of Pay Transparency Directive in the participating EU countries as well as improved understanding of the Pay Transparency Directive in Candidate Countries, and finally enhancing the cooperation of workers organizations for the development of next steps and recommendations to reduce gender pay gap.

The enforcement of labor laws and gender-role stereotypes remain significant obstacles in addressing gender disparities in most of the countries. To improve compliance, stronger enforcement mechanisms and awareness campaigns are needed. Low female workforce participation and occupational segregation persist. For that reason, policies promoting paternity leave and gender-neutral job classifications are also recommended. Very often patriarchal norms hinder progress, and women are underrepresented in high-paying roles, and gender-sensitive policies and improved access to leadership positions are crucial in addressing these issues.

Cultural shifts towards inclusive leadership and equitable workplace policies are also needed. Private sector pay gaps are a bigger problem due to weak wage transparency, mandatory wage reporting, and union engagement, together with legal frameworks and employer accountability mechanisms that are necessary. A key component of this effort is the EU Pay Transparency Directive from 2023, which requires pay transparency in all member states in order to alleviate wage disparities. Although this directive is a big step in the right direction, it will take a lot of institutional support to be implemented effectively. Small and medium-sized businesses can find it difficult to meet these new regulations, which emphasises the necessity of government support to ease implementation.