Compliance and compromise: the jurisprudence of gender pay equity

UnrestrictedThis dissertation examines the status of one of the core international labor standards-gender pay equity in international law. It explores how domestic legislative and judicial systems respond to the core ILO Convention No. 100 on Equal Remuneration, with the hope of unraveling under what circumstance legislative and judicial compliance occurs. The "transnational legal process" theory (which consists of three elements: internalization, interpretation and interaction) is employed to explain the phenomenon of "compliance".; The domestic jurisprudence on gender pay equity has gone a long way from "equal pay for equal work", to "equal pay for similar work", and to "equal pay for work of comparable worth". Although there is a trend in the developed countries to encompass a broad principle of equal pay, as defined in the Convention, the majority of the developing countries still struggle to do that.; The current international law on gender pay equity has achieved a general acceptance and compliance. However, the ILO conventions on equal pay are ahead of reality and far from being reflected in actual practice. General international labor standards on gender pay equity are still vague and incomprehensible to the public. In general, state's compliance with the international treaty does occur in the area of gender pay equity, but with compromise in terms of the concept of "equal pay for equal work and work of equal value", the scope of "remuneration", and "the establishment of an objective job appraisal method". To eliminate the gender wage gap, only a comprehensive legislative approach is likely to succeed