ACKNOWLEDGING AND OVERCOMING GENDER WAGE GAP IN THE EUROPEAN UNION: A CLOSE EXAMINATION OF SWEDEN AND FRANCE

Abstract

One of the measurable indicators of inequality between female and male employees is considered as gender wage gap. Although there are governments that have developed policies to overcome injustice in getting different levels of wages for the same amount of work, gender wage gap does exist in the European Union (EU) with different proportions. To reveal the current gender wage gap situation, the precautions that were taken to handle this significant problem, reports, statistics, and policies were examined and compared in this paper. First the gender wage gap ratios and policies to handle this matter in the EU were presented, following that gender wage gap issue in Sweden and France was closely examined. In the discussion part, new implementation and policy suggestions were mentioned. The analysis of the international data and comparison of the two countries reveal that, gender wage gap appears with huge numbers even in the most developed countries in the EU.