According to data from Eurostat, in 2020, women's gross hourly earnings were on average 13% lower than men in the EU. Over a period of eight years, the wage gap between men and women in the community has reduced from 16.4% in 2012 to 13% in 2020.

However, at the national level, the downward trend that had persisted since 2015 — the year in which the wage gap was set at 15% — was reversed after 2018, the year in which wage inequality in Portugal was calculated at 8.9%.

These disparities vary among the 27 member states of the community bloc. The largest salary differences are observed in Latvia (22.3%), followed by Estonia (21.1%), Austria (18.9%) and Germany (18.3%), while the smallest gap was found in Luxembourg (0.7%), which is followed by Romania (2.4%), Slovenia (3.1%) and Italy (4.2%).

According to the European Statistics Office, “parts of the pay gap between men and women can be explained by differences in the average characteristics of male and female workers and by differences in financial income for the same characteristics“.

These values ​​were calculated for companies with ten or more employees. As an unadjusted indicator, the gender pay gap gives an overall picture of gender differences in terms of earnings and measures – a concept that is broader than discrimination in the sense of “equal pay for equal work”. value”, notes Eurostat.