International Women´s Day. Gender pay gap.
Thirty years after UN member states pledged to guarantee “equal pay for equal work” at the UN Beijing Women´s Conference this promise is far from being fulfilled. Globally women earn 23% less than men earn for work of equal value – with an even wider wage gap for women with children.
According to Eurostat, women in the EU earned 12% less than their male colleagues, in terms of gross hourly wages in 2023. Iceland (9.8%) has narrowed the gender pay gap more than the other Nordic countries. Sweden does slightly better than the EU average (11.2%). However, Norway (12.8%), Denmark (14%) and Finland, (16.8%), are all below the average according to Eurostat.
By contrast the smallest gap within in the EU was found in Luxembourg (-0.7), followed by (0.7%), Italy (2.2%) and Romania (3.8%).
The greatest inequalities in terms of gross hourly pay are recorded in Austria (18.3%), the Czech Republic (18%), Hungary (17.8%), Switzerland (17.2%) and Estonia (16.9%).
Luxembourg: European champions
Luxembourg is the only EU country to have achieved pay parity, with a gap of -0.9% in favor of women in 2023 according to Eurostat. Progress has been rapid: the gap was still 10.7% in favor of men in 2006, then 1.4% in 2018.
However, official statistics from Luxembourg (STATEC) qualify this success. “The gap is -0.9% (in favor of women) when average hourly earnings are considered, but it is still tilted in favor of men when annual earnings are taken into account, given that a small percentage of men earn very high salaries and bonuses, and that women work more part-time”.
Italy, for its part, stands out from other southern European countries, with a low gross hourly wage differential 2.2% compared with Portugal (8.6%), Spain (9.6%), Greece (13.6%) and France (12.2%), according to Eurostat.
Why does the gender pay gap persist?
On International Women´s Day the focus is on the gender pay gap. Ingrained inequalities cause the gender pay gap according to the UN. Women, especially migrant women, are overrepresented in the informal sector, leading to low-paying, unsafe working conditions without social benefits. Women also perform three more hours of daily care work than men, including household tasks and caring for children and the elderly. The motherhood penalty exacerbates pay inequity, with working mothers facing lower wages, particularly as the number of children they have increased. Gender stereotypes, discriminatory hiring practices, and promotion decisions also contribute to pay inequalities.
