Dominik Koos

Wage Equality by Law? The fight for Wage Equality Using the Example of the Pay Transparency Act

My dissertation project examines the development of the Pay Transparency Act and the implementation of the Pay Transparency Directive into national law. The principle of pay transparency is based on the objective of reducing the gender pay gap. As of 2023, this gap stands at 18% (adjusted 6%). Despite the principle of equal pay being established in national and international law, the pay gap has persisted for decades. In a constitutional state, the courts have the task of interpreting and applying abstract legal norms such as the Pay Transparency Act in specific individual cases. The interpretation and concretization of legal sources such as laws, international treaties, and constitutional norms is not an automatic process, but always involves a normative assessment. Case law therefore necessarily means taking a political position in social disputes.

The subject of legal disputes is not the causes and background of social conflicts that give rise to litigation. In a binary system, disputes arise over factual requirements and legal consequences. The social conflicts that the respective norms serve to regulate recede into the background. The parties to the proceedings argue within the framework of a specific line of argumentation about the interpretation of legal sources within the framework of legal methods about the supposedly “correct” or prevailing opinion. The fact that the apolitical nature of jurisprudence is only an unfulfillable self-imposed requirement becomes particularly apparent in labor law: companies, employers’ associations, trade unions, law firms, social movements, and political organizations struggle for legal interpretive authority not only in court, but also at conferences, in professional associations, in scientific journals, in expert commentaries, and in public debate.

In my research, I examine how political disputes surrounding the principle of pay transparency are translated into law. Using the example of the debates surrounding the EU Pay Transparency Directive and its implementation into national law, I examine how the political discussion is continued in court. The central question is how interest groups influence the legal discourse on the interpretation of laws. The study aims not only to provide legal insights, but also to contribute to the understanding of democratic theory issues in the constitutional state.