The gender pay gap in Cyprus between men and women stands at 9%, meaning women earn 91 cents for every euro men earn, Commissioner of General Equality Iosifina Antoniou said in a message on November 15, Equal Pay Day.
As she noted, women in the European Union still earn less than their male colleagues in the same jobs. This means that women work for free for the two last months of the year when compared to the wages of men.
November 15 was chosen as Equal Pay Day, as from this day, women across the EU will work for free until the last day of the year, compared to their male counterparts.
At 9%, the gender pay gap in Cyprus is the fifth lowest in the EU.
Luxembourg had the lowest difference in pay between men and women with women paid 0.7% less than their male colleagues, while the largest gender pay gap is in Latvia where women earn 22.3% less than men.
Despite the fact that the position of women in social and professional life has improved, the pay gap remains, Antoniou noted.
She added that the factors behind the pay gap are many and complicated, and can be mainly found in the multiple roles that women have, for example caring for family, children, and older parents which forces them to only work part-time. Other women, in full-time employment, face the issues of “sticky floors” and “glass ceilings,” meaning that their salaries remain stagnant compared to those of men, both at the bottom and the top end of the wage distribution.
The Commissioner referred to the 2019-2023 National Action Plan of Equality between men and women, pointing out that one of its seven main targets is empowering women at work. Other aims, she said, are the combating of harassment and sexual harassment at work, improving the capacity of social partners to address workplace inequality, strengthening female entrepreneurship, combating gender-based discrimination and encouraging businesses to promote equal pay.