Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1438074
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 DECEMBER 2021 8 NEWS JAMES DEBONO CONTRARY to the general trend in the European Un- ion, the gender pay gap has increased by 4.4 percentage points in Malta between 2010 and 2019, a study by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Liv- ing and Working Conditions (Eurofound) reveals. The study shows that wom- en in highly-paid jobs are the most likely to get paid less than their male counterparts in all EU countries. In Mal- ta the lowest gender pay gap was found amongst those with a low-mid pay (8%) and highest among those with the highest pay (16%). The study shows that in the EU as a whole the gender pay gap has narrowed consid- erably over the last decade. For the EU, it was stable be- tween 2010 and 2014 (15.8% and 15.7%, respectively), be- fore falling in recent years to 14.1% in 2019. The gap was narrowed in two-thirds of member states, with the sharpest reduction registered in Luxembourg and Cyprus where the gap was narrowed by more than 7 percentage and Estonia and Romania where it was narrowed by 6 points. In contrast, it has wid- ened in one-third of coun- tries, all of them post-2004 accession member states except France. This was es- pecially the case in Slovenia where the gap increased by 7 points, Croatia and Latvia where the gap increased by 6 points and Malta and Poland where the gap increased by 4 points. The most striking find- ing of the study is that the gender pay gap is much wid- er in well-paid jobs in the top two wage quintiles: 18% in the highest-paid quintile and 10% in the next highest. "Not only are women less likely to be working in well-paid jobs, but even when they occupy these well-paid jobs, they are disproportionately impacted by gender pay differentials," the study notes. But although the gender pay gap is highest in Mal- ta among the highest paid, Malta ranks among the countries with the great- est gap among the lowest paid and among those with the smallest gap among the highest paid. In fact, Malta ranks fourth as regards the gen- der gap among the least paid and 14th among the highest-paid gender gap. As things stand the gender pay gap among the high- est-paid in Malta is the same as that of Sweden and Portu- gal (16%). The country with the low- est gender pay gap among the highest-paid is Belgium where it amounts to 3% and highest in Slovakia (24%) and Italy (23%). Germany and France also registered a high gender pay gap of 22% among the highly paid. On the other hand, the gender gap among the low paid is 3 points higher in Malta than that in the whole EU. Among this category the gender pay gap is highest in Croatia (17%) and lowest in Bulgaria where lowly paid women are slightly more likely to earn more than their male counterparts. Another striking finding Low paid Low mid pay Mid paid Mid high paid High paid 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 10% 7% 8% 7% 10% 5% 11% 10% 16% 18% Malta EU Gender pay gap across the EU Gender pay gap across lower-paid and higher-paid as a percentage Gender pay gap among different income groups in Malta compared to the entire EU Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czechia Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Italy Latvia Malta Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden 0 10 20 30 4% 3% 21% 17% 13% 3% 21% 9% 21% 5% 15% 8% 17% 2% 11% 8% 22% 8% 22% 19% 7% 21% 8% 23% 10% 16% 10% 16% 8% 19% 10% 20% 10% 16% 4% 11% 10% 24% 12% 11% 11% 13% 2% 16% Low Paid High paid Gender pay gap in Malta increased by 4 points over past decade Gender pay gap highest in Malta among high- income earners Women in highly-paid jobs are the most likely to get paid less than their male counterparts in all EU countries. In Malta the lowest gender pay gap was found amongst those with a low-mid pay (8%) and highest among those with the highest pay (16%)