Solving Wage Information Asymmetry: The Perspective of the European Union and Lithuania

Abstract

The search for criteria and mechanisms for resolving the pay gap between men and women is one of the main directions of the equality policy of the European Union. More than half a century after the establishment of the principle of the right to equal pay for the same work or work of equal value, it became apparent that the pay gap between men’s and women’s wages remains unsealed. One reason is the wage information asymmetry between the employee and employer. This asymmetry was corrected in the Pay Transparency Directive of the European Union. The author examines the measures for adjusting information asymmetry on wages provided for in the directive. They are divided into three groups – the measures ensuring pay process transparency, the measures ensuring pay communication transparency, and the measures ensuring pay outcome transparency. Subsequently, obstacles and opportunities for the transfer of these measures to the Lithuanian legal system are discussed.