According to Statistics Estonia, the country’s official statistics agency, in 2021, the gross hourly earnings of female employees were 14.9% lower than the earnings of male employees.
The agency said in a statement that the gender pay gap decreased by 0.7 percentage points year on year in the country and was the “lowest on record”. However, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, Estonia has still the second highest gender pay gap among the member states.
In 2021, the gross hourly earnings of female employees were €8.48 and the gross hourly earnings of male employees were €9.97. The gap was highest in financial and insurance activities (25.7 per cent), followed by wholesale and retail trade (24.2 per cent), human health and social work activities (23.8 per cent) and information and communication (23.5 per cent).
“As in 2020, transportation and storage was the only economic activity where women earned more than men – pay gap was 5.2 per cent. The wage gap was small also in accommodation and food service activities where men did earn a little more than women, but the gap was relatively small – 5.8 per cent,” Statistics Estonia said.
According to the agency, the gender pay gap has decreased by nearly 10 percentage points in Estonia since 2013.
According to Eurostat, working women in the EU earn on average 13 per cent less per hour than men. The differences are smallest in Luxembourg (0.7 per cent), Romania (2.4 per cent), Slovenia (3.1 per cent) and Italy (4.2 per cent).
