Gender pay gap highest in Malta among high-income earners

Contrary to the general trend in the European Union, the gender pay gap has increased by 4.4 percentage points in Malta between 2010 and 2019, a study by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) reveals. 

The study shows that women in highly-paid jobs are the most likely to get paid less than their male counterparts in all EU countries. In Malta the lowest gender pay gap was found amongst those with a low-mid pay (8%) and highest among those with the highest pay (16%). 

The study shows that in the EU as a whole the gender pay gap has narrowed considerably over the last decade. For the EU, it was stable between 2010 and 2014 (15.8% and 15.7%, respectively), before falling in recent years to 14.1% in 2019.  

The gap was narrowed in two-thirds of member states, with the sharpest reduction registered in Luxembourg and Cyprus where the gap was narrowed by more than 7 percentage and Estonia and Romania where it was narrowed by 6 points. 

In contrast, it has widened in one-third of countries, all of them post-2004 accession member states except France. This was especially the case in Slovenia where the gap increased by 7 points, Croatia and Latvia where the gap increased by 6 points and Malta and Poland where the gap increased by 4 points. 

The most striking finding of the study is that the gender pay gap is much wider in well-paid jobs in the top two wage quintiles: 18% in the highest-paid quintile and 10% in the next highest. “Not only are women less likely to be working in well-paid jobs, but even when they occupy these well-paid jobs, they are disproportionately impacted by gender pay differentials,” the study notes.

But although the gender pay gap is highest in Malta among the highest paid, Malta ranks among the countries with the greatest gap among the lowest paid and among those with the smallest gap among the highest paid. 

In fact, Malta ranks fourth as regards the gender gap among the least paid and 14th among the highest-paid gender gap.

As things stand the gender pay gap among the highest-paid in Malta is the same as that of Sweden and Portugal (16%). 

The country with the lowest gender pay gap among the highest-paid is Belgium where it amounts to 3% and highest in Slovakia (24%) and Italy (23%). Germany and France also registered a high gender pay gap of 22% among the highly paid. 

On the other hand, the gender gap among the low paid is 3 points higher in Malta than that in the whole EU. Among this category the gender pay gap is highest in Croatia (17%) and lowest in Bulgaria where lowly paid women are slightly more likely to earn more than their male counterparts. 

Another striking finding is that most of the gender pay gap in Malta and most other EU countries cannot be explained with reference to common explanatory factors such as differences in education, tenure and working hours.  

The report concludes that that women’s over-representation in low-paying sectors and part-time employment are among the main factors explaining the gender pay gap. Having caring and family responsibilities is the main reason that women are employed part-time rather than full-time.

In this context, the availability and affordability of care services for children or ill, disabled or elderly adults plays an important role. Rebalancing the division of paid and unpaid work between men and women is also crucial to narrow gender gaps in the labour market, allowing women to have the same professional opportunities as their male counterparts.

The report also notes that more women have worked from home during the pandemic. And while extending telework may improve work-life balance for many workers, for working women, this may come at the expense of workplace visibility, and result in reduced opportunities to access training and promotions, and ultimately slower career – and salary – progression.

Moreover the increase in telework may actually “exacerbate the unequal distribution of care tasks within the household.” 

The research project s was undertaken by the European Jobs Monitor and was written by Carlos Vacas-Soriano, John Hurley and Martina Bisello.