Just Wages for Women

Aileen McColgan's book makes an important contribution to the study of Labour Law in a number of ways. Firstly, she offers a convincing and authoritative account of the failures of the current approach adopted in the UK (even with the EC reinforcements) for the securing of more equitable arrangements on pay. Secondly, the book provides a valuable insight into the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches adopted in other parts of the world. The author spent a great deal of time in Canada studying the novel approaches there, and her analysis of the approaches adopted in Ontario, and also Australia form a good part of the book. Thirdly, the author addresses the wider issues of different forms of wage regulation and enriches our understanding by indicating that the gender pay gap may be determined to some extent by the way in which pay is regulated. This leads to the conclusion that more emphasis on wage payment structures would be a more helpful way of dealing with the problem of equal pay than the current preoccupation with an individual complaints driven model.