The Institutionalised Undervaluation of Women’s Work: The Case of Local Government Sector Collective Agreements
分析集体协议如何制度化和合法化女性工作的低估，以芬兰地方政府为例，指出高度女性化职业中普遍存在制度性低估。
This article analyses the role of collective agreements in institutionalising and legitimising the undervaluation of work conducted by women. The undervaluation of women’s work has been identified as one of the main causes of the gender pay gap. Despite this, it continues to escape many of the policy measures on gender pay equity that focus on establishing wage discrimination. The Finnish local government sector provides an interesting case for research on undervaluation, as it has several collective agreements and several wage determination systems for different employee groups. However, a local authority is a single employer, and is obliged by law to treat all employees equally. Although the processes of wage determination vary across different national contexts, institutionalised undervaluation is very likely among highly feminised jobs and occupations worldwide. This article sees wages as social practices that reflect and are shaped by institutional, societal and historical contexts.