Women in Europe earn on average almost 16 per cent less than men, according to a new study which finds that the gender wage gap in Ireland is less than in many other EU Member States.
According to new data published by the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO), an organisation which monitors industrial relations across Europe, the gender wage gap averaged 15.9 per cent across the EU27 Member States and Norway in 2007, down from 16.2 per cent in 2006.
Among the 28 countries examined in the report, the gender wage gap is greatest in Slovakia where women earn on average nearly 27 per cent less than men.
Slovenia is ranked as the best nation in terms of the gender wage gap with women earning 6.9 per cent less than their male counterparts. Belgium is the second best nation in terms of pay differentials with women earning 7 per cent less. Meanwhile, Ireland is ranked joint third alongside Italy with a difference of 9 per cent.
In Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal, there is a comparatively wider wage gap of 20 per cent or more.
The study reveals that since 2001, the average wage gap in the EU15 countries has narrowed. In 2001, the difference in pay between men and women was 20.4 per cent. By 2007 it had fallen to 14.4 per cent.
However, the latest data indicates that the pay gap between men and women in the new EU Member States is wider than the EU average.
In the 12 new Member States the gender wage gap averages 17.8 per cent, 3.4 per cent higher than the current EU15 average.
