Wage inequality and gendered labour market distributions are among the central issues of our time. Inequality in wages is complex and shaped by a multitude of intersecting factors; however, a significant share of gender-based wage inequality stems from the fact that men and women tend to work in different sectors and occupations that are remunerated differently. Across the globe, women earn, on average, 20 per cent less than their male counterparts. Even in countries that have made explicit commitments to closing the gender pay gap—such as those in Europe—women continue to earn approximately 13 per cent less than men. This enduring disparity persists despite the implementation of strategic institutional measures designed to address it, including collective bargaining systems intended to raise wage floors in feminised sectors and reduce structural inequalities.
Gender equality constitutes a foundational principle of the European Union and is deeply enshrined in the EU social model. From the principle of equal pay for equal work embedded in the founding treaties to contemporary policy initiatives, the EU has positioned gender equality as both a social right and an economic imperative. Yet important pitfalls remain. Wage formation is primarily a competence of member states, embedded in diverse national industrial relations systems and collective bargaining traditions. At the same time, processes of Europeanisation have increasingly shaped national wage-setting frameworks. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the Six-Pack reforms strengthened EU economic governance and intensified surveillance of wage developments, linking them to macroeconomic stability. More recently, the EU Minimum Wage Directive has sought to promote adequate minimum wages and strengthen collective bargaining coverage, while the Pay Transparency Directive addresses both vertical inequalities within organisational hierarchies. These layered dynamics—where national autonomy coexists with supranational coordination and implicit intervention—underscore the need to analyse wage inequality at both EU and member-state levels in order to fully grasp its institutional complexity and gendered effects.
Against this backdrop, WAGE seeks to interrogate the gendered dynamics embedded within collective bargaining regimes by examining historical trajectories, contemporary configurations, and possible future developments at the EU level as well as in Germany, Norway, and Sweden. By focusing on two contrasting sectors—metal and nursing—the project analyses how collective bargaining processes shape wage formation and reproduce or mitigate pay disparities. Through qualitative research, WAGE aims to illuminate the institutional and sectoral mechanisms that sustain gendered wage hierarchies and to contribute pathways toward greater equity in the organisation and valuation of work.