Understanding the gender pay gap: What role do sector and occupation play?

In 2019, the average hourly wage of women in the EU was 14% lower than that of men. Across the Member States, the gender pay gap was widest in Austria, Estonia, Germany and Latvia at around 20% and narrowest in Italy, Luxembourg and Romania at less than 5%.

Although women outperform men in educational attainment, this remains largely unrewarded in terms of higher pay. Women’s high educational achievement is, however, preventing an even larger pay gap across nearly all Member States.

The EU gender pay gap is larger among higher earners, highly educated employees and those with privileged labour market status related to age, job tenure, contractual arrangement and supervisory responsibilities. The proposed EU directive to introduce binding pay-transparency measures and enforcement mechanisms across the EU will aim to address opaque pay differences in well-paid jobs, in particular, where the gender pay gap is largest and where policy-based improvements may, as a result, have the greatest impact.

To help women avoid the pay penalty of working part-time and ensure they have the opportunity to earn more, it is critical to remove the barriers to full-time employment such as availability and affordability of care services and the rebalancing of paid and unpaid work between men and women. Caring and family responsibilities are the main reasons that women are employed part-time rather than full-time.

The persistence of gender segregation across sectors, occupations and jobs highlights the urgent need to encourage young men and young women to engage in sectors and occupations identified with the other gender, via education and training systems and other incentives.