(08 March 2018) – In 2016, the unadjusted gender pay gap stood at just over 16% in the European Union. In other words, women earned on average 84 cents for every euro a man makes per hour.
The gender pay gap in the EU Member States, in 2016, was less than 10% in Romania (5.2%), Italy (5.3%), Luxembourg (5.5%), Belgium (6.1%), Poland (7.2%), Slovenia (7.8%) and Croatia (8.7%, data for 2014).
Conversely, the gender pay gap was over 20% in Estonia (25.3%), the Czech Republic (21.8%), Germany (21.5%), the United Kingdom (21.0%) and Austria (20.1%).
Compared with 2011, the gender pay gap has dropped in most of the EU Member States. The most noticeable decreases between 2011 and 2016 were recorded in Romania (-4.4 percentage points – pp), Hungary (-4.0 pp) Spain and Austria (both -3.4 pp), Belgium (-3.3 pp) and the Netherlands (-3.0 pp).
In contrast, the gender pay gap has risen between 2011 and 2016 in ten Member States, with the most significant increases being observed in Portugal (+4.6 pp) and Slovenia (+4.5 pp).