The gender pay gap in the European Union amounts to an average of 16.4% to the disadvantage of women. The lowest gap is in Slovenia (3.2%), followed by Malta (5.1%), Poland (6.4%), Italy (7.3%), Croatia (7.4%), Luxembourg (8.6%), Romania (9.1%) and Belgium (9.8%). The highest gender pay gaps are in Estonia (29.9%), Austria (23.0%), the Czech Republic (22.1%) and Germany (21.6%). This is the latest data, collected in 2013, published by Eurostat.
Compared with 2008, the gender pay gap at the EU level decreased slightly by 0.9% from 17.3% in 2008 to 16.4% in 2013. A decrease was observed in the majority of EU countries - the most in Lithuania (-8.3%, from 21.6% to 13.3%), Poland (-5.0%, from 11.4% to 6.4%) and the Czech Republic (-4.1%; from 26.2% to 22.1%). However, in nine countries the gap widened - the most in Portugal (+ 3.8%, from 9.2% to 13.0%), Spain (+ 3.2%, from 16.1% to 19.3%) and Latvia (+ 2.6%, from 11.8% to 14.4%).
| Gender pay gap in the EU (2008-2013) | Women on the labor market and in occupations |
Two-thirds of women work in administration
The differences between men and women are not only in regards to salaries, but also in the type of occupations. Although women represent 46% of all the employees in Europe, they are significantly underrepresented in managerial positions, while greatly outnumbering men in administrative positions. In 2013, 33% of women were working as managers across the entire EU. In the administration support sector, 67% of the workers are women and women made up 64% of workers in the field of services and sales. The fewest women in management positions were in Luxembourg (16%), Cyprus (19%), the Netherlands (25%) and Croatia (25%).
The highest number of female managers were in Hungary (41%), Latvia (44%) and Poland (38%). Regarding administrative positions, the highest number of women worked in these positions in Ireland (80%) and the Czech Republic (79%).
The gender gap in the EU labor market was also significant regarding the type of employment they held. While only 8.1% of men worked part-time, the figure was 31.8% among women. In the Czech Republic, 2.4% of men and 10% of women worked part-time.
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