Malta has second smallest gender pay gap in EU

With women in Malta earning 5.2 percent less than men, the country registered the second smallest gender pay gap in the EU27 in 2007, a Eurostat survey has found.

The member states with the largest gender pay gaps were Estonia (30.3 percent), Austria (25.5 percent), the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Slovakia (all 23.6 percent), Cyprus (23.1 percent) and Germany (23 percent). The smallest gender pay gap was in Italy (4.4 percent). Malta was followed by Poland (7.5 percent), Portugal and Slovenia (both 8.3 percent) and Belgium (9.1 percent).

The survey also found that in 2006, 41 percent of physicians in the EU27 were women, compared with 35 percent in 1996. The proportion of female physicians differed greatly between the member states, ranging from 22 percent in Malta and 27 percent in Luxembourg (both in 2004) to 73 percent in Latvia, 70 percent in Estonia, 69 percent in Lithuania and 68 percent in Romania.

In 2006, 38 percent of academic staff in tertiary education in the EU27 were women, compared with 33 precent in 1998. The highest percentages were found in Latvia (57 percent), Lithuania (53 percent), Estonia (49 percent in 2004) and Finland (48 percent), and the lowest in Malta (28 percent), Slovenia and Italy (both 34 percent).

Nearly a third (33 percent) of managers in the EU27 in 2007 were women, compared with 30 percent in 2001. There were fewer female managers than male managers in all member states, with the highest proportions of female managers in 2007 recorded in Latvia (40 percent), Lithuania and France (both 38 percent) and Poland (36 percent), and the lowest in Cyprus (15 percent), Malta (19 percent) and Luxembourg (21 percent).