Women earned on average 16% less than men in the EU in 2013, but the gap in Malta was among the lowest, at 5.1 per cent, Eurostat figures show.

The gap in Malta was caused principally by the fact that only 28 per cent of managerial position are held by women. The EU average is 33 per cent.   

Eurostat said that in 2013, the gender pay gap in the whole of the EU stood at 16.4%, ranging from less than 5% in Slovenia to more than 20% in Estonia, Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany.

The gender pay gap represents the difference between average gross hourly earnings of men and women.

Differences between women and men in the labour market are also evident in  type of occupations held. Though representing 46% of employed persons, women were under-represented amongst managers, with only a third being female in 2013 in the EU. On the contrary, women were over-represented among clerical support workers as well as among service and sales workers, accounting for around two-thirds of employed persons in these occupations.
 
In 2013, one employed woman out of every three (31.8%) worked part-time, compared with fewer than one man out of 10 (8.1%).

In 2013 in the EU Member States, the gender pay gap was less than 10% in Slovenia (3.2%), Malta (5.1%), Poland (6.4%), Italy (7.3%), Croatia (7.4%), Luxembourg (8.6%), Romania (9.1%) and Belgium (9.8%). At the opposite end of the scale, the gender pay gap was over 20% in Estonia (29.9%), Austria (23.0%), the Czech Republic (22.1%) and Germany (21.6%).

Compared with 2008, the gender pay gap has dropped in 2013 in a majority of EU Member States. The most noticeable decreases between 2008 and 2013 were recorded in Lithuania (from 21.6% in 2008 to 13.3% in 2013, or -8.3 percentage points), Poland (-5.0 pp), the Czech Republic and Malta (both -4.1 pp) and Cyprus (-3.7 pp).

In contrast, the gender pay gap has risen between 2008 and 2013 in nine Member States, with the most significant increases being observed in Portugal (from 9.2% in 2008 to 13.0% in 2013, or + 3.8 percentage points), Spain
(+3.2 pp), Latvia (+2.6 pp), Italy (+2.4 pp) and Estonia (+2.3 pp). At EU level, the gender pay gap has decreased slightly, from 17.3% in 2008 to 16.4% in 2013.