Equality and Equal Pay in the Legislation and Government Structures of the Czech Republic

The legal basis of the gender equality agenda is set primarily in the Constitution of the Czech Republic.

The agenda of gender equality is within the remit of the Prime Minister. 

The Prime Minister simultaneously acts as the chair of the Government Council for Gender Equality (Rada vlády pro rovnost žen a mužů (‘the Council’), the permanent advisory body to the Czech government established in 2001. The Council has four advisory committees and four working groups.

As the Secretariat of the Council serves the Department of Gender Equality (Odbor rovnosti žen a mužů při Úřadu vlády ČR), the government gender equality body at national level.  

In the parliament’s Chamber of Deputies, the Permanent Commission on Family Issues, Equal Opportunities and Minorities deals with the gender equality agenda. Similarly, within the Senate, the agenda is held by the Sub-Committee on Human Rights and Equal Opportunities of the Committee on Education, Science, Culture, Human Rights and Petitions.

The independent gender equality body is the Public Defender of Rights (Veřejný ochránce práv), the body for equal treatment, whose mandate is designated by EU and the Act on the Public Defender of Rights.

(Source: Gender Mainstreaming Approach – Czech Republic (europa.eu) )

The Project 22% TOWARDS EQUALITY and the Government Council for Gender Equality

To secure the actual gender pay gap portfolio is an integral part of the work of the Government Council for Gender Equality, the project´s Chief Administrator and Head of Gender Pay Gap Reduction Portfolio, Ms. Lenka Simerská, acts in the following three committees in her capacity as a regular member:

• the Committee on the Institutional Framework for Gender Equality
• the Committee for Balanced Representation of Women and Men in Politics and Decision-making
• the Committee for the Reconciliation of Work, Private and Family Life

Through the Committees, the project makes concrete suggestions to promote equal pay and transparency, e.g. the latest proposal for all the ministeries to undergo the analyses by the Logib analytic tool to indicate the GPG in public administration.