Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining can be traced back to the industrial revolution in the 18th-19th century. During this time, many jobs were lost to the ability of machines taking over. Because of this, people started to form organizations to protect their jobs and income. Thus, bringing about unions and, in turn, collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is a right for workers and can bring about many benefits, including limiting biases and equity gaps. Thus, ensuring all workplaces are fair. Collective Bargaining has been proven to lower the wage gap and establish more equality in workers and wages. Internationally, countries that use collective bargaining have lower wage inequality such as Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands and Sweden, and countries who use collective bargaining less, have higher wage inequality, like Hungary and Poland. Collective bargaining has also played a role in shrinking the gender pay gap. Although collective bargaining has helped the gender pay gap, due to its role in directly affecting wages, there is still unfair equity in benefits and bonuses given out. Developed countries like the UK who practice collective bargaining still have a sizeable pay gap. Developing countries like specific places in Africa, where they do not rely on collective bargaining, have a gender pay gap as well. This shows that although collective bargaining may help, it is not the be-all end all to the problem.