International mechanisms to revalue women's work: research

Appendix 3 – Glossary

Agenda for Change: the collective name for the NHS terms and conditions of service.

Arms-length and trading organisations: organisations used by councils to deliver key services.

Austerity: government measures to reduce public expenditure.

Blue collar workers: workers who carry out manual labour in receipt of, commonly, an hourly wage.

Class action: a type of legal proceeding in which one person (the plaintiff or applicant) brings a claim on behalf of a wider group of people who have been affected in a similar way, or by the same circumstances.

Collective agreements: the agreements that result from collective bargaining.

Collective bargaining: the official process by which trade unions negotiate with employers, on behalf of their members on the terms and conditions of their employment. Collective bargaining is only possible where an employer recognises a trade union.

Contracting out of public services: putting out to competitive tender a publicly funded and provided service with contracts awarded largely on the basis of price by the private sector.

COSLA: the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities is the national association of Scottish councils and acts as an employers’ association for its 32 member authorities.

Employment tribunals: Courts that hear claims of breaches of employment law.

Equal pay: men and women who work for the same employer and who do the same kind of work must legally be given equal pay, unless any difference can be justified.

Equal pay certification: this certification is usually externally moderated and certifies that an organisation pays equal wages to men and women.

Equal pay commissioner: in Canada an individual who can provide expertise and support to coordinate responses to equal pay issues including key equal pay claims and rulings.

Equal pay legislation: the legal parameters for paying workers, set by the UK Government.

Equality allowance: an additional payment for female workers to close the Gender Pay Gap.

Equality impact assessment: a method of systematically taking equal opportunities into consideration when making a decision related to policy, budgets or services that could have disproportionate impacts on individuals or groups protected under the Equality Act 2010.

Gender equality: when the treatment of men and women does not depend on their gender. Treating men and women this way should ensure they are treated equally.

Gender mainstreaming: An approach that integrates gender considerations into all facets of an organisation’s work to ensure gender equality.

Gender-neutral job evaluation: generally, the criteria associated with job evaluation in the context of equality are referred to as gender-neutral. This term emphasises the necessity of including all the overlooked aspects of women’s jobs in the job evaluation process and of giving them as much attention as the characteristics of men’s jobs.

Gender Pay Gap: the difference between average gross hourly earnings of men and women as a percentage of the average gross hourly earnings of male paid employees (excluding overtime).

Gender predominance: jobs that are associated with one gender or the other, based on quantitative or qualitative criteria.

Gender-segregated jobs: jobs carried out predominantly by one gender.

Group action: a type of legal proceeding in which one person (the plaintiff or applicant) brings a claim on behalf of a wider group of people who have been affected in a similar way, or by the same circumstances.

Integration Joint Boards: these are boards that are responsible for strategic planning and delivery of the functions they have discretion over.

Intersectional: The interconnected nature of social categories such as gender, race and class that may produce overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.

Job evaluation: a method used to measure the characteristics of the jobs within an enterprise, with the aim of establishing their relative value.

Jurisdiction: one system of law or law courts.

Litigation: the process of taking legal action against an individual or organisation.

National Living Wage: the legal hourly minimum rate an employee or worker over 23 years of age should earn for their labour.

National Minimum Wage: the legal hourly minimum rate an employee or worker under 23 years of age should earn for their labour.

National Pay Equity Coalition: A feminist advocacy and policy group active in New South Wales and federal industrial relations from 1988 to 2011.

Non-regular workers: these are workers who are on non-standard contracts;

Non-standard contracts: contracts that are not permanent or open ended.

Occupational segregation: the clustering of men and women into different jobs or types of work (horizontal segregation) and into different levels of work (vertical segregation).

Pay equity: Equal pay for work of equal value based on a comparison of jobs usually done by women with different jobs usually done by men on the basis of levels of skill, effort and responsibility.

Privatisation: when the ownership and control of a business moves from the public sector to the private sector, and/or the management of a service or activity is transferred from national or local government to the private sector.

Proactive approach to pay equity: the proactive approach to pay equity is different from the traditional complaints-based model of pay equity in that it does not rely on a complaint to initiate a pay equity review. It places positive obligations on employers to review their compensation practices, identify any gender-based inequities, and take steps to eliminate them.

Protected characteristics: defined under the Equality Act 2010 as race/ethnicity, disability, age, sex, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, marriage/civil partnership, sexual orientation, and gender reassignment.

Proxy method: used when there is no male comparator within an organisation. It allows the organisation to find male comparators in an external organisation.

Proxy pay comparator: used when there is no male comparator within an organisation. It allows the organisation to find male comparators in an external organisation.

Public Sector Equality Duty: requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010; advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (as defined by the 2010 Act) and persons who do not share it; and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

Real Living Wage (rLW): a wage rate that is higher than the NLW and NMW and allows workers to receive pay that meets the cost of everyday living. The rate is determined by the Living Wage Foundation on an annual basis.

Regular workers: workers on permanent contracts with job security and favourable terms and conditions, such as sick pay.

Revaluation of women’s work: the value of women’s work is reconsidered and given the appropriate value, often in line with the value attached to comparable men’s work.

Sectoral collective bargaining: when collective bargaining is carried out at sectoral level and any collective agreements apply to the whole sector.

Sectoral segregation: where women are clustered in certain sectors of the economy.

Single Status: the introduction of common pay and conditions, job evaluation and a single pay spine for former manual workers and administrative, technical and professional staff in local government.

Social partner: representative of management and labour who engage in collective negotiation.

Specific Duties Regulations 2012 Scotland: these regulations apply specific duties to Scottish public sector organisations to help them meet the general duties of the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Trade union: an organisation of a group of workers who fight to improve terms and conditions of employment and campaign on issues of justice and fairness.

Tripartite negotiation: negotiation between employers, trade unions and government.

Undervaluation: defined as women receiving lower pay and reward for their skills, knowledge and experience than men in comparable jobs

Unionisation: the process of workers becoming members of a trade union.