Romania closing the EU gender pay gap quickest

Expert Market, Europe’s leading B2B marketplace, has conducted new research into the factors that affect the gender pay gap in the EU. The quickest pay gap closure is projected to occur in Romania (2018) for women aged 25-34 and work a skilled manual job in the private hospitality sector. Hungary has the slowest rate of pay gap closure in Europe with even the quickest route to equal pay not occurring until 2068. In western Europe, Britain’s quickest pay gap closure is 2067, for women working part-time in the private sector as a salesperson in food & accommodation services.

By modeling current pay gap trends into the future for five economic factors (hours worked, sector, age, industry and job type), the study identified both the countries and the groups of women who will see the gender pay gap close quickest.

Surprisingly, Romania took the top spot with a potential gender pay gap closure date of 2018 with women aged between 25 and 34, working a skilled manual role within the private hospitality industry most likely to achieve equal pay first.

In all of the top performing nations, the quickest routes to gender pay equality favored women currently aged 34 or under and who worked in some capacity for the government or in the electricity and energy sector.

At the opposite end of the table, women in the U.K, Portugal and Hungary will be waiting for pay parity until 2067, 2068 and 2068 respectively.

Michael Horrocks from Expert Market comments: “Although it is troubling to see the gender pay gap persisting in the EU, it is encouraging to see several potential closure dates in the near future. This research indicates that the traditional European powers – U.K., France & Germany – could be doing more to help close the gender pay gap.”

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