This article investigates processes of gender pay audits in five municipalities in Sweden in order to understand the reasons why gender pay audits in general do not level out men’s and women’s salaries in the way they are intended to. The results show how gender pay audits became a bureaucratic process to fulfil a legal requirement, and how they were decoupled from core organizational practices and salary policies. This decoupling was furthered by the realization that the result of gender pay audits would imply a need for large structural changes in pay policies, for which there were no financial means. Consequently, decoupling was found to be a major reason why gender pay audits are ineffective in coming to terms with gender pay gaps.

本文调查了瑞典五个城市的性别薪酬审计过程，以了解性别薪酬审计总体上没有按预期方式平衡男性和女性工资的原因。结果表明，性别薪酬审计如何成为满足法律要求的官僚程序，以及它们如何与核心组织实践和薪酬政策脱钩。认识到性别薪酬审计的结果意味着需要对薪酬政策进行大规模结构性改革，而没有财务手段，这进一步加剧了这种脱钩。因此，发现脱钩是性别薪酬审计在解决性别薪酬差距方面无效的一个主要原因。