Women in managerial positions in Romania earn 5% less on average than men, this being the lowest gender pay gap in managerial positions in the European Union, according to EU’s statistical office Eurostat.

The second-lowest gender pay gap for managers is registered in Slovenia – 12.4%, followed by Belgium – 13.6%, and Bulgaria – 15%.

On the other hand, a female manager earns about a third less than her male counterpart in Hungary - 33.7%, Italy - 33.5%, and the Czech Republic - 29.7%, and about a quarter less in Slovakia - 28.3%, Poland - 27.7%, Austria - 26.9%, and Germany - 26.8%.

Eurostat notes that the gender pay gap, as defined in its news release, is linked to a number of legal, social and economic factors that go far beyond the single issue of equal pay for equal work.

At EU level, the gender pay gap for managers stays at 23.4%, which means that female managers earn on average 77 cents for every euro a male manager makes per hour.

Nearly 7.3 million people hold managerial positions in enterprises with 10 employees or more located in the European Union, 65% of whom are men. The largest share of women among managerial positions is recorded in Latvia, the only member state where women are a majority (53%) in this occupation. It is followed by Bulgaria and Poland (both 44%), Ireland (43%), Estonia (42%), Lithuania, Hungary, and Romania (all 41%), and France and Sweden (both 40%).

Romania also has the lowest overall gender pay gap in EU and research shows that Romanian women could close gender pay gap in 2018.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com