Progress towards equal pay for men and women in the European Union has slowed, meaning that in many countries women will have to wait until at least the end of this century to earn the same pay as their male counterparts.

If progress continues at the current pace, women and men will receive equal pay in the European bloc by around 2086, according to Bloomberg estimates and revised data from Eurostat. Typically, for a girl born this year, conditions for equal pay will be ripe by the time she retires. .

The average gender gap in gross hourly earnings at the end of 2021 was 12.7%, just 0.2% lower than in 2020, with Greece in tenth place, although in 2018 this percentage is better than in European Union, but also in large economies such as Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, France.

However, the variances are unevenly distributed. In Luxembourg, women’s wages were 0.2% higher than men’s wages in 2021. While the gender pay gap has narrowed to 5% in Belgium and below 10% in Cyprus. But the gap in many other countries, including Norway, Denmark, Portugal, has widened, indicating that pay equity in many countries is becoming increasingly unattainable.

The figures come as the European Union prepares to vote this month on new pay transparency rules. If the policy is adopted in its current form, the publication of data on the pay gap and the gender breakdown of the pay scale will become mandatory for employers above a certain size, as is already the case in the UK.

It is noted that the relevance of the issue is such that the decision of the UN General Assembly established the International Day of Equal Pay, celebrated annually on September 18, starting from 2020.

Source: Bloomberg.