Measuring Equal Employment Policy Outputs: Collective Bargaining on Equality at the Firm Level

Since the Genisson Law of 2001, collective bargaining at both sectoral and local (company or workplace) levels has become the main vehicle of equal pay and equal employment policy in France, with the addition, since 2011, of sanctions. The striking growth of texts that formally apply labor laws, is often presented as an indicator of a meaningful enforcement. But an in-depth analysis of the content of these texts, their principles and actions plans, reveals that there are significant debates around the definition of gender pay gaps that stands to undermine their real impact on equalizing men and women’s position in the paid labor force. A content analysis of a representative sample of 186 company agreements and unilateral (employer) plans dating from 2014-2015, selected for their size, their sector and the gender composition of their workforce, allows first to identify defensive strategies of employers around equal pay, and a selective agenda in terms of domains, instruments or targets for actions. Qualitative monographs of six companies (within this sample) reveal that the evolving machinery of equality policy and compliance creates a dynamic set of key stakeholders that participate in the implementation processes. Besides social partners at company level (HR management and trade union officials), labor inspectors and consultants in equality or HR may have an influence. Women's business networks, trade unions and employers’ federations, also belong to this ecosystem: they can edit equality guides, organise trainings or give technical advices. These actors have quite different motivations and resources that in some cases allow them to impose their gender frame or priorities. But their respective influence in terms of concrete outcomes for women (positive actions), is strongly conditioned by the social and economic context of each company.