The situation in the EU

Country:

Key figures on equality between women and men at work in relation to the gender pay gap

From the new Eurostat estimates (based on Structure of Earnings survey), it appears that there are considerable differences between the Member States in this regard, with the pay gap ranging from less than 10% in Italy, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Belgium to more than 20% in Slovakia, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Germany, United Kingdom and Greece and more than 25% in Estonia and Austria.

However, the pay gap is not an indicator of the overall equality between women and men since it only concerns salaried persons. It must be looked at in conjunction with other indicators linked to the labour market. This usually reflects the different working patterns of women. In most of the countries in which the female employment rate is low (e.g. Malta, Italy, Greece, Poland), the pay gap is lower than average, which may reflect the small proportion of low-skilled or unskilled women in the workforce. A high pay gap is usually characteristic of a labour market which is highly segregated (e.g. Cyprus, Estonia, Slovakia, Finland) or in which a significant proportion of women work part-time (e.g. Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden). Institutional mechanisms and systems on wage setting can also influence the pay gap.

Country	Gender Pay Gap	Country	Gender Pay Gap
Belgium	9.1	Luxembourg	10.0
Bulgaria	12.7	Hungary	16.3
Czech Republic	23.6	Malta	5.2
Denmark	17.7	Netherlands	23.6
Germany	23.0	Austria	25.5
Estonia	30.3	Poland	7.5
Ireland	17.1	Portugal	8.3
Greece	20.7	Roumania	12.7
Spain	17.6	Slovenia	8.3
France	15.8	Slovakia	23.6
Italy	4.4	Finland	20.0
Cyprus	23.1	Sweden	17.9
Latvia	15.4	United Kingdom	21.1
Lithuania	20.0