EU women earn 13% less than men
“Women in the European Union still continue to earn less than men, with the average gender pay gap in the EU standing at about 13%, for the third year in a row. This means that for every €1 a man earns, a woman makes €0.87”, the EU Commission says in a statement on the annual European Equal Pay Day on November 15.
Underrepresentation of women in sectors with higher paying jobs, including technology and infrastructure, is one of the reasons for the gender pay gap, World Economic Forum’s annual report on gender gap states.
The WEF report says that in 2024, women made up 28.2% of the STEM workforce, but the picture is improving for AI Engineering talent. Although men still outnumber women, over the past four years the share of female AI talent has increased significantly.
The EU Commission says that the gender pay gap equals to a difference of around one month and a half of salary per year.
“Considering this loss of income, European Equal Pay Day – falling on 15 November this year marks the day from which women in the EU will symbolically start ‘working for free’ for the rest of the year. It is a symbolical day dedicated to raising awareness to the gender pay gap.”
“We have made strides toward closing gender disparities. Indeed, in the past five years, women’s employment has risen by 2.9 percentage points and the gender pay gap has declined by 1.5 percentage points”, say commissioners Věra Jourová, Nicolas Schmit and Helena Dalli in a statement.
“Significant barriers remain in terms of care options and structures available to balance professional and personal commitments. With 90% of the formal care workforce comprised of women and 7.7 million women out of employment due to insufficient care services.”
They call on Member States to ensure the full implementation of the Pay Transparency Directive, “which will advance pay transparency for jobseekers, provide employees with the right to pay information, require reporting on the gender pay gap, and introduce joint pay assessments.”
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