The Legacy of Equality and the Weakness of Law: Within-job Gender Wage Inequality in the Czech Republic

Using firm-level data from the Czech Republic in the years 1998, 2002, and 2004, we examine whether the introduction of legislative measures for gender equality connected with the accession to the European Union had a significant effect on gender wage inequality. The central conclusion of our analysis is that within-job wage inequality plays a significant role in the Czech labour market, and that there were no substantive changes during the period studied. Czech women doing the same job in thesame establishment earn about 10% less than their male co-workers. The smallest gender wage gaps are found in establishments and groups of employees representative of or with strong ties to the socialist past. We conclude by speculating that motherhood and women’s responsibilities in the home, together with the legal system’s lack of legitimacy, limit the impact of legislative changes on practices in Czech society and preserve gender wage discrimination.