Understanding the gender pay gap: What role do sector and occupation play?
Published: 14 December 2021
Despite the increasing participation of women in the labour market and a higher share of women than men being hired into well-paid jobs in recent years, a gender pay gap exists across all EU Member States. Pay differentials between women and men have been shown to be significantly influenced by the economic sector where people work and the occupation they hold.
This policy brief examines these dimensions. It also identifies how much these and other factors contribute to gender disparities in pay. The analysis finds that, of the observable factors examined, the greater likelihood of women working in lower-paying sectors and working part-time are the most important contributors to the gender pay gap. Nevertheless, around two-thirds of the gap in the EU remains unexplained by individual and employment-related factors typically analysed, suggesting that other factors not captured by survey wage data account for the rest of it.
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.
This section provides information on the data contained in this publication.
The policy brief contains the following table and figures.
Table 1: Gender pay gap (%), by job–wage quintiles, EU Member States, 2018
Figure 1: Change in gender pay gaps (%), EU and Member States, 2010–2019
Figure 2: Gender pay gaps and female employment rates (%), Member States, 2019
Figure 3: Gender pay gap (%) and average wages by sector, EU, 2018
Figure 4: Share of employees (%) and wage levels in selected occupations in the construction sector, EU, 2018
Figure 5: Share of employees (%) and wage levels in selected occupations in the financial services sector, EU, 2018
Figure 6: Share of employees (%) and wage levels in selected occupations in the health sector, EU, 2018
Figure 7: Gender pay gap (%) and average wages, by occupation, EU, 2018
Figure 8: Gender pay gap (%), by age and educational attainment, EU, 2018
Figure 9: Gender pay gap (%), by work-related factors, EU, 2018
Figure 10: Breakdown of the gender pay gap into explained and unexplained parts (%), EU and Member States, 2018
Figure 11: Breakdown of the gender pay gap into factors contributing to the explained part (%), EU and six Member States, 2018
Learn more about the authors of this publication.
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2021), Understanding the gender pay gap: What role do sector and occupation play? European Jobs Monitor series, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
ISBN
978-92-897-2227-8
Number of pages
28
Reference no.
EF21039
ISBN
978-92-897-2227-8
Catalogue number
TJ-AR-21-006-EN-N
DOI
10.2806/939946
Permalink
http://eurofound.link/ef21039
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14 December 2021
One of the most striking developments of the last half-century has been the huge rise in the labour market participation of women. Two out of every three net new jobs created over the last two decades in the EU were taken by women. At the same time, sharply rising employment rates among older workers due to population ageing and policy changes have increased the share of older workers in the labour market. This report examines the impacts of the changing contours of labour supply on the employment structure over the last quarter-century in Europe (1995–2019). The primary focus is on gender, with a secondary focus on ageing. Among the main findings are that employment shares in gender-balanced jobs have declined despite the rising female share of employment and that gender pay gaps are highest in well-paid jobs.
