The gender pay gap in the EU countries
Topic: Work and income
In Estonia, women's average hourly pay is 18.8% below men's.
In 2024, the EU average was 11.1%. That is how much lower women's average hourly pay was than men's. The gap also reflects that women and men often work in different jobs and sectors.
- Figures for:
- 2024.
- Covers:
- differs by country.
- New data:
- once a year.
- Dataset updated:
- 27 October 2026.
Published 28 October 2026, updated 6 November 2026
The ranking
In 2024, the unadjusted gender pay gap was highest in Estonia, at 18.8%, and lowest in Luxembourg, at −0.8%.
Unadjusted gender pay gap, %
2024 · full-time and part-time employees in industry, construction and services, education, health and social work includedOver time
Unadjusted gender pay gap in the EU, %
2010–2024 · full-time and part-time employees in industry, construction and services, education, health and social work includedBetween 2010 and 2024, the gap narrowed in 24 countries and widened in 2. In Italy, it was the same in 2024 as in 2010.
Unadjusted gender pay gap, %
2010 and 2024 · ranked by 2024 · full-time and part-time employees in industry, construction and services, education, health and social work includedAbout the data
The unadjusted gender pay gap shows how much lower women's average gross hourly earnings are than men's, as a share of men's. It counts employees in enterprises with 10 or more employees. The EU figure is the average of the national gaps weighted by the number of employees.
Counted: full-time and part-time employees in industry, construction and services, education, health and social work included.
Left out:
- the self-employed
- employees of enterprises with fewer than 10 employees
- employees in agriculture, forestry and fishing
- employees in public administration, defence and compulsory social security
- employees of households and of international organisations
Eurostat: “GPG = [(average gross hourly earnings of male paid employees - average gross hourly earnings of female paid employees) / average gross hourly earnings of male paid employees] expressed in %.” (source)
The four-yearly Structure of Earnings Survey (SES), estimated from national sources for the years in between.
How to read these numbers
How it is measured
The gap is unadjusted. It compares average hourly pay and does not take into account differences in jobs, hours, experience or education. It measures something broader than unequal pay for equal work.
In the survey years (every four years, most recently 2022), the gap compares hourly pay in one month, October in most countries. For the years in between, each country estimates the gap from its own sources and aligns it with the survey. These sources differ by country. Some cover one month, others the whole year.
A negative gap means that, on average, men earned less per hour than women.
Different definitions
Czechia's figure also covers public administration and enterprises with fewer than 10 employees (flag d). Eurostat marks this only for 2015 to 2018 and from 2023. It does not say whether Czechia's figures for the other years have the same coverage. This concerns Czechia (2024).
Breaks in the series
A break in the series (flag b) means that a value is not fully comparable with the years before it. This concerns Finland (2024), Germany (2022), Hungary (2017, 2019) and Slovenia (2023).
Provisional figures
A provisional value (flag p) may still be revised. This concerns every country (2024) and the EU (2023–2024), except Poland and Romania.
Estimates
A value with flag e is an estimate, not measured or counted in full. This concerns Romania (2024).
Sources and data
Eurostat, Gender pay gap in unadjusted form by NACE Rev. 2 activity - structure of earnings survey methodology (earn_gr_gpgr2). Data updated 27 October 2026, retrieved 3 November 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.
Eurostat metadata · Eurostat methodology
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/api/dissemination/statistics/1.0/data/earn_gr_gpgr2?format=JSON&lang=en&freq=A&geo=AT&geo=BE&geo=BG&geo=CY&geo=CZ&geo=DE&geo=DK&geo=EE&geo=EL&geo=ES&geo=EU27_2020&geo=FI&geo=FR&geo=HR&geo=HU&geo=IE&geo=IT&geo=LT&geo=LU&geo=LV&geo=MT&geo=NL&geo=PL&geo=PT&geo=RO&geo=SE&geo=SI&geo=SK&nace_r2=B-S_X_O&unit=PCRelated stories
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Income of the richest fifth against the poorest in the EU
In Bulgaria, the richest fifth received 6.94 times as much income as the poorest fifth, against 3.25 times in Belgium (2025)
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The richest tenth's share of income in the EU
The richest tenth received 29.3% of all equivalised disposable income in Bulgaria, against 19.0% in Slovakia (2025)
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Young people neither working nor learning in the EU
In Romania, 19.2% of young people aged 15 to 29 are neither in employment nor in education or training, against 5.3% in the Netherlands (2025)
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How many years people in the EU can expect to work
A 15-year-old in the Netherlands can expect 44.0 years of working life, against 32.7 years in Romania (2025)