Decentralisation and the gender pay gap in the Italian context. Case studies.

The case studies presented in this chapter are intended to identify the impact, limits and potential of contractual decentralisation with respect to the factors triggering gender pay gaps (GPGs) in a context, such as the Italian one, where basic wages are determined at the national level on the basis of a centralised system of collective bargaining. The target of investigation is the gaps observed over the basic wage threshold – especially in the awarding of superminimi (monthly bonuses over minimum pay) and in the distribution, also regulated by company collective agreements, of incentive pay, in particular, of productivity bonu- ses – as well as those linked to the phenomena of horizontal and vertical segregation. The analysis approach is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary: it com- bines a legal perspective aimed at highlighting the critical issues in the for- mulation of the regulations, based on a reading of the regulatory contractual data offered by a reliable sample of company collective agreements, and an economic analysis, designed to measure the impact of the regulations – but also of the non-negotiated and unwritten employer practices – on the pay levels of men and women in specific company contexts. The depth of the investigation, made possible by observing the real-life situation of one of the companies concerned, enabled us to integrate our observations with a sociological analysis, allowing us to show, in particular, the impact of the phenomena of horizontal and vertical segregation on the development of the GPG.