Abstract
This paper analyses systemic differences between average wages of women and men (raw or unadjusted gender pay gap) in the six Western Balkans countries. The findings in this paper suggest that in these countries, during 2015–2019, women earned, on average, up to 16% less than men. The reason behind such a considerable gender pay gap could be in shared history, i.e. shared political and economic culture in the Western Balkans, rooted gender segregation, and discrimination against women. The findings in this paper also suggest that such a gender pay gap might have adverse economic consequences, such as a decrease in employment rate and economic activity and, consequently, a significant decrease in GDP per capita. Based on these findings, several policy proposals are put forward aiming to reduce the current gender pay gap and mitigate the adverse economic consequences.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
Petreski and Mojsoska Blazevski (2015).
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
That is also one of the findings in the FREN - Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (2020).
- 9.
- 10.
INSTAT (2020).
- 11.
These earnings are calculated based on the enterprises’ payrolls declared to the General Directorate of Taxation for contributions on social security, health, and tax on income from employment (INSTAT 2020).
- 12.
EU Commission (2021).
- 13.
INSTAT (2020).
- 14.
This paper primarily relies on CBS’s data due to the similar data collecting and processing methods compared to the other national statistics authorities in the Western Balkans.
- 15.
CBS (2016).
- 16.
EU Commission (2021).
- 17.
CBS (2020).
- 18.
CBS (2017–2021).
- 19.
RZS (2020).
- 20.
RZS (2020).
- 21.
It should be noted that the gender pay gap in the EU member states and Serbia are not compatible due to the different methods of collecting data and calculating by Eurostat in the EU and RZS in Serbia. Namely, the EU calculates the adjusted gender pay gap that includes data on employees’ personal characteristics and working hours, i.e. data not collected or provided in Serbia and the majority of other countries in the region.
- 22.
WB (2015).
- 23.
The same report states that the gender pay gap is largely explained by unobserved factors, indicating that the main source of the gender pay gap in BiH could be discrimination.
- 24.
RCC (2021).
- 25.
WB (2015).
- 26.
Petreski and Mojsoska Blazevski (2015).
- 27.
Grimshaw and Rubery (2015).
- 28.
Nikoloski (2019).
- 29.
Also, the FREN Policy Brief (2020), based on the data from 2008 to 2010, estimates that the adjusted gender pay gap in North Macedonia is 17.9%, which is similar to the cited most recent findings.
- 30.
WEF (2021).
- 31.
FREN Report (2020).
- 32.
ILO (2019).
- 33.
The Government of Montenegro (2017).
- 34.
Jacobsen (2007).
- 35.
Jorgić (2018), pp. 4–5.
- 36.
Harsch (2014), pp. 1–20.
- 37.
Fernández and Valiente (2021), pp. 351–370.
- 38.
For instance, Serbian Law on Gender Equality (Official Gazette RS, 104/2009) has introduced the rule that at least 30% of all members of the Parliament have to be women. Other WB6 countries have introduced similar legislation, and it seems that it has had a positive impact on women’s empowerment and political participation in the region.
- 39.
Atoyan and Rahman (2017).
- 40.
Jacobsen (2007).
- 41.
That is why education is one of the crucial characteristics within the Blinder-Oaxaca method for calculating the gender pay gap in its adjusted form. See Leythienne and Ronkowski (2018).
- 42.
WEF (2021).
- 43.
- 44.
Jacobsen (2007).
- 45.
Bose (1985).
- 46.
- 47.
- 48.
- 49.
Antić and Krstić (2019), pp. 137–169.
- 50.
Serbian Supreme Court, judgement in the case Rev2 2461/2015.
- 51.
RSE (2019).
- 52.
All WB6 countries currently have laws and regulations forbidding gender-based discrimination. However, they did not explicitly legally protect the standard of equal pay for work of equal value nor introduced mandatory payment transparency for the employers, which could help in reducing the gender pay gap.
- 53.
See, for instance, EIGE (2019).
- 54.
EIGE (2019).
- 55.
The activity rate gap refers to the percentage of people who are either working or looking for work.
- 56.
RCC (2021).
- 57.
See Halvorsen and West Pedersen (2018), pp. 130–143.
- 58.
PWC (2021).
- 59.
EIGE (2019).
- 60.
The women empowerment index examines the gender gap in five areas—labour force participation, education, decision making, health and political participation. All the fundamental elements of the women empowerment index are closely correlated with and could affect the gender pay gap.
- 61.
Petreski and Mojsoska Blazevski (2015).
- 62.
RCC (2021).
- 63.
RCC proposes similar measures in, ‘Economic benefits of gender equality and women empowerment in the western Balkans six’, 2021.
References
Antić A, Krstić G (2019) What lies behind the gender wage gap in Serbia? Econ Ann LXIV(223)
Atoyan R, Rahman J (2017) Western Balkans: increasing women’s role in the economy. International Monetary Fund working paper, no. 17/149
Avlijas S, Nevena I, Vladisavljevic M, Vujić S (2013) Gender pay gap in the Western Balkan countries: evidence from Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. FREN – Foundation for the Advancement of Economics and Regional Research Promotion Programme - Western Balkans
Beeson Royalty A (1996) The effects of job turnover on the training of men and women. ILR Rev 49(3):506–521
Bobbitt-Zeher D (2011) Gender discrimination at work: connecting gender stereotypes, institutional policies, and gender composition of workplace. Gend Soc 25(6):764–786
Boll C, Lagemann A (2019) The gender pay gap in EU countries — new evidence based on EU-SES 2014 data. Intereconomics 54(2):101–105
Bose C (1985) Jobs and gender: a study of occupational prestige. Praeger, New York
CBS - Croatian Bureau of Statistics Publications (2017–2021). https://web.dzs.hr/arhiva_e.htm
CBS - Croatian Bureau of Statistics Report (2016). https://www.dzs.hr/eng/publication/men_and_women.htm
CBS - Croatian Bureau of Statistics Report (2020). https://www.dzs.hr/eng/publication/men_and_women.htm
CSF - Civil Society Forum (2018) Gender issues in the Western Balkans. CSF policy brief no. 04. https://cep.org.rs/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/CSF-PB-04-Gender-Issues-in-the-Western-Balkans.pdf
EIGE - European Institute for Gender Equality (2019) Economic benefits of gender equality in the European Union. https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/policy-areas/economic-and-financial-affairs/economic-benefits-gender-equality/activity-pay
EPRS - European Parliamentary Research Service (2018) Women in the Western Balkans: gender equality in the EU accession process. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2018/625139/EPRS_BRI(2018)625139_EN.pdf
EU Commission (2021) The gender pay gap situation in the EU. https://ec.europa.eu/info/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/gender-equality/equal-pay/gender-pay-gap-situation-eu_en
Fernández J, Valiente C (2021) Gender quotas and public demand for increasing women’s representation in politics: an analysis of 28 European countries. Eur Polit Sci Rev (13):351–370
FREN - Foundation for the Advancement of Economics (2020) Gender pay gap in the Western Balkan countries: evidence from Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. Foundation for the Advanced Studies. https://fren.org.rs/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Policy-Brief-EN.pdf
Gould E, Schieder J, Geier K (2016) What is the gender pay gap and is it real? Economic Policy Institute Report
Grimshaw D, Rubery J (2015) The motherhood pay gap: a review of the issues, theory, and international evidence. ILO – Conditions of work and employment series no. 57. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/@publ/documents/publication/wcms_348041.pdf
Halvorsen E, West Pedersen A (2018) Closing the gender gap in pensions: a microsimulation analysis of the Norwegian NDC Pension System. J Eur Soc Policy
Harsch D (2014) Communism and women. In: Smith SA (ed) The Oxford handbook of the history of communism. Oxford University Press, London
ILO - International Labour Organization (2019) Decent Work Country Programme 2019–2021: Montenegro. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/%2D%2D-ed_mas/%2D%2D-program/documents/genericdocument/wcms_679155.pdf
ILO - International Labour Organization (2020) Empowering women at work. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/%2D%2D-ed_emp/%2D%2D-emp_ent/%2D%2D-multi/documents/publication/wcms_756721.pdf
INSTAT - Institute of Statistics Report (2020) Women and men in Albania 2020. http://www.instat.gov.al/en/publications/books/2020/women-and-men-in-albania-2020/
Jacobsen J (2007) The economics of gender. Wiley-Blackwell, New Jersey
Jorgić K (2018) Pitanje ženske emancipacije između Marksizma-Len**izma i prakse KPJ. GENERO 22(1):4
Leythienne D, Ronkowski P (2018) A decomposition of the unadjusted gender pay gap using Structure of Earnings Survey data. Statistical working papers, Eurostat
Lynch L (1992) Private-sector training and the earnings of young workers. Am Econ Rev 82(1):299–312
Meara K, Pastore F, Webster A (2019) The gender pay gap in the USA: a matching study. J Popul Econ 33(1):271–305
Miteva S (2019) The gender pay gap in the Balkans. Laika. https://medium.com/wearelaika/the-gender-pay-gap-in-the-balkans-a38f1de5173a
Nikoloski D (2019) The gender pay gap in North Macedonia: assessing the difference between low-paid and high-paid employees. SEER J Labour Soc Aff Eastern Europe 22(1):117–138
PayScale (2021) The State of the Gender Pay Gap in 2021. https://www.payscale.com/research-and-insights/gender-pay-gap/#section14
Petreski M, Mojsoska Blazevski N (2015) The gender and motherhood wage gap in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: An econometric analysis. ILO working paper. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/%2D%2D-europe/%2D%2D-ro-geneva/%2D%2D-sro-budapest/documents/publication/wcms_447699.pdf
Plan of Activities for Achieving Gender Equality in Montenegro (2017) Government of Montenegro. https://www.paragraf.me/nacrti_i_predlozi/PLAN_AKTIVNOSTI_ZA_POSTIZANJE_RODNE_RAVNOPRAVNOSTI.pdf
PWC (2021) Women in WORK 2021 Report. https://www.pwc.co.uk/economic-services/WIWI/women-in-work-2021-executive-summary.pdf
RCC - Regional Cooperation Council (2021) Economic benefits of gender equality and women empowerment in the western Balkans six. https://www.rcc.int/download/docs/Economic%20benefits%20of%20gender%20equality%202021.pdf/7699e42296360f5320b3c51c040e8ab0.pdf
RSE - Radio Slobodna Evropa (2019) Istraživanje: Žene diskriminisane na random mjestu. https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/%C5%Beene-diskriminacija-crna-gora-radno-mesto/29903845.html
RTV - Radio-televizija Vojvodine (2019) Janković: Žene najviše diskriminisane na tržištu rada. https://rtv.rs/sr_lat/drustvo/jankovic-zene-najvise-diskriminisane-na-trzistu-rada_1003805.html
RZS - Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (2020) Women and men in the Republic of Serbia. https://publikacije.stat.gov.rs/G2021/PdfE/G20216001.pdf
Vujadinović D, Stanimirović V (2019) Rodni odnosi u Srbiji u doba tranzicije – između emancipacije i retradicionalizacije. In: Studije roda. Pravni fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu, pp 169–197
WB report - The World Bank, Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, FBiH Institute for Statistics and RS Institute for Statistics (2015) Bosnia and Herzegovina: gender disparities in endowments, access to economic opportunities and agency. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/22471/Bosnia0and0Her0rtunities0and0agency.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
WEF - World Economic Forum (2021) Global Gender Gap Report 2021. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2021.pdf
Whitehouse G, Smith M (2020) Equal pay for work of equal value, wage-setting, and the gender pay gap. J Ind Relat 62(4):519–532
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ilić, N. (2022). Gender Pay Gap in the Western Balkans: Why Do Women Earn Less Than Men?. In: Davinić, M., Kostić, S. (eds) Gender Competent Public Law and Policies. Gender Perspectives in Law, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14706-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14706-7_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-14705-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-14706-7
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)