Why do some Member States tend to have higher gender pay gap than others?
The gender pay gap is not an indicator of the overall gender inequality. It measures only the earnings differences between men and women that are on paid employment on the labour market. Therefore, cross-country differences in gender pay gaps reflect labour market participation. Furthermore, different labour market conditions, different work patterns between women and men and the extent to which women and men can reconcile their work, private and family life also play a role. Some examples illustrate these general patterns: • In most of the countries in which the female employment rate is low (e.g. MT, IT, EL, PL), the pay gap is lower than average, which reflects the small proportion of low-skilled or unskilled women in the workforce; • A high pay gap is usually characteristic of a labour market which is highly segregated (e.g. CY, EE, SK FI), meaning that women are more concentrated in a restricted number of sectors and/or professions; • Countries in which a significant proportion of
