In 2015, the gender pay gap in the European Union (EU) stood at 16.3%. This means that women earned on average 84 cents for every euro earned by a man. Across Member States, the narrowest gender pay gaps were registered in Luxembourg and Italy (both at 5.5%), and the widest in Estonia (26.9%), followed by the Czech Republic (22.5%), Germany (22%), Austria (21.7%) and the United Kingdom (20.8%).
Compared with 2010, the gender pay gap has decreased in a majority of EU Member States for which data were available. The most noticeable decreases were recorded in Belgium (from 10.2% in 2010 to 6.5% in 2015, or -3.7 percentage points), Hungary (-3.6 pp), Luxembourg (-3.2 pp), and Romania and Finland (both -3.0 pp).
In contrast, the gender pay gap has risen in the same time in ten Member States, with the most significant increases being observed in Slovenia (from 0.9% in 2010 to 8.1% in 2015, or +7.2 pp) and Portugal (+5.0 pp).
Overall in the EU, the gender pay gap remained rather stable over this time period.
Croatia, Ireland and Malta: 2014 data instead of 2015; UK: estimate of Eurostat.
The gender pay gap is linked to a number of legal, social and economic factors, which go far beyond the single issue of equal pay for equal work.
• For more information, see Eurostat Statistics Explained articles on gender statistics and on gender pay gap statistics.
• Please also read Eurostat news release 38/2017 published on 6 March 2017 on the occasion of International Women's Day.