On average women across the EU are paid 12.7 per cent less than their male counterparts. That’s the equivalent to not getting any more pay from today for the rest of the year.
The EU calculates European Equal Pay Day each year based on salary differences. As women’s pay has got slightly more equal, the day has moved later in the year.
But this year, it is on exactly the same day as last year because the pay gap has got no better.
The figures are calculated by the EU’s data agency, Eurostat. The latest full-year data is from 2022 and shows that Estonia had a pay gap of 21.3 percent. In Austria it was 18.4 percent.
That compares to a pay gap of 4.5 percent and 4.3 percent respectively in Romania and Italy.
Only Luxembourg has near equal pay. In fact, on average women earn 0.7 percent more than their male colleagues.
Ireland did not provide Eurostat with data. But an analysis by the accountancy firm PWC estimates Ireland has a pay gap of 12.6 percent, so very close to the European average.
The European Commission President von der Leyen has raised eyebrows by not nominating a dedicated Commissioner for Equality for her second term. Instead the equality brief has been tapped onto the job title of the commissioner in charge of forest fires and humanitarian aid.
At her grilling by MEPs last week, the Commissioner-designate for Preparedness and Crisis Management and for Equality, Hadja Lahbib, was repeatedly asked about her commitment to the equality brief.
The former Foreign Minister of Belgium insisted that she would be a champion for equality issues.
The outgoing European Commissioner for Equality, Helena Dalli, is expected to speak out against pay discrimination in a speech later today.