14508/09 ADD 1 PL/vk 1 DG G COUNCIL OF THE ... - Europa

Unemployment has been falling in most countries between 2000 and 2007 for both women and
men. Gender gaps in unemployment rates have also been narrowing, by 0.8 percent in EU27. The
main exceptions to this pattern are Lithuania, Slovakia and Hungary, where the gender gaps have
widened by 2 percent or more. On the other hand, in Spain, Cyprus, Italy, Poland, France and
Greece the gap has closed by more than 2 percent.
Indicator 10: The most reliable harmonised gender pay gap data are based on the Structure of
Earnings Survey (SES). 32 The gender pay gap in unadjusted form represents the difference between
average gross hourly earnings of male paid employees and those of female paid employees as a
percentage of average gross hourly earnings of male employees. It is not possible to portray this
indicator fully since at present no data are available by education and sector and the age
categorisation is not asked for.
At EU27 level, the gender pay gap was slightly more than 17 % in 2007. For women there is a
negative gender pay gap in all countries. The largest gap is found in Estonia (30 %), the smallest in
Italy (4 %). Some countries seem not to be doing very well on this indicator, since the gap is 20 %
or more (FI, LT, EL, UK, DE, CY, NL, SK, CZ, AT, EE); others score better with gaps of less than
10 % (IT, MT, PL, PT, SI, BE).
However, a narrow gender pay gap may not mean a better labour market situation for women than a
larger gender pay gap (OECD 2002). The reason for this is that highly educated and better paid
women are to a great extent employed in almost all countries. This is not the case with women with
lower education and less pay. The differences between countries are much greater in the latter
category; in some countries the employment rate is relatively high, while in others it is quite low.
32 The unadjusted gender pay gap represents the difference between average gross hourly
earnings of male paid employees and those of female paid employees. From 2006 onwards,
the GPG data is based on the methodology of the Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) carried
out with a four-yearly periodicity. The most recent available reference years are 2002 and
2006 and Eurostat computed the GPG for these years on this basis. For the intermediate years
(2007 onwards) countries provide Eurostat with estimates benchmarked on the SES results.
Target population is all employees without restrictions as far as age and hours worked are
concerned, but only enterprises with 10 employees or more are included. In accordance with
NACE Rev. 1.1. economic activities are included for the aggregate sections C-O, excluding L,
which means that A. Agriculture, hunting and forestry; B Fishing; L Public administration and
defence, compulsory social security; P Activities of households and Q Extraterritorial
organisations and bodies are excluded.
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