Women Working for Free: Report Highlights Gender Pay Gaps across Europe

Following the Equal Pay and Gender Pay Gap debate, a new study was conducted and a report released by Expert Market, which claims to be Europe’s leading B2B marketplace, highlighting that the average woman in Europe earn 16.68 percent less annually than men, which is the equivalent of working for free for nearly two months of the year.

The report gives a number of examples, including Bosnia, where, according to Expert Market findings, the gender pay gap is the highest in Europe at 46 percent. Slovenia appears to have the lowest at 3.20 percent, the UK shows 19.70 percent and a 34.80 percent pay gap is shown in Georgia.

The report was conducted using existing European data and a selection of European studies concerning the gender pay gap, enabling a calculation of the dates on which women this year started “working for free” across Europe, which, for Georgia, was August 25 and for the UK, October 19. The calculation is made using the average earnings of women in each country as a percentage of men’s earnings.

When it comes to Georgia, according to another study titled: ‘Priority gender issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Georgia; Moldova; Serbia; and Ukraine – with consideration to gender and governance,’ by Pamela Pozarny and Brigitte Rohwerder, conducted under the GSDRC (June 2016), despite the improving economic environment of the country, there still remain challenges related to women’s participation in business and their ability to benefit from economic opportunities. A weak entrepreneurial and promotion policy and legal environment, poorly skilled employees and limited access to finance are the decisive factors for this, alongside the absence of a “culture” of entrepreneurship. For women, patriarchal attitudes and social customs are what underpin traditional gender roles and limit women’s opportunities.

The report also demonstrates the low rate of female employment in the country: 48.8 percent in 2016 compared to 54.5 percent in 2015. Salaries for woman are often lower, while the pay gap is visible in both the private and public sectors.

In commenting on their latest workplace report, Michael Horrocks from Expert Market notes: “When we examine gender pay disparity across Europe, it can be difficult to actually imagine how this difference in pay is reflected in everyday life. Our findings highlight the amount of money women across Europe are losing out on in comparison to their male peers. It is disappointing to see that in many European countries, women are essentially working for free for two or more months each year.”

Nino Gugunishvili

Link to data: http://www.expertmarket.co.uk/gender-pay-gap-in-europe