Only one manager out of three in the European Union is a woman

Women earn on average almost a quarter less than a man

Nearly 7.3 million persons hold managerial positions in enterprises with 10 employees or more located in the European Union (EU): 4.7 million men (65% of all managers) and 2.6 million women (35%). In other words, although representing approximately half of all employed persons in the EU, women continue to be underrepresented amongst managers.

These figures were published yesterday by Eurostat – the EU’s statistics office – ahead of International Women’s Day, which is celebrated today.

It said that, in addition, those women in managerial positions in the EU earn 23.4% less on average than men, meaning that female managers earn on average 77 cents for every euro a male manager makes per hour.

This pattern at EU level masks significant discrepancies between member states regarding both positions and pay.

This information, extracted from the four-yearly structure of earnings survey for reference year 2014, is published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, on the occasion of International Women’s Day. This news release only shows a small part of the large amount of gender-based data available at Eurostat.

Managers are mostly women only in Latvia

The largest share of women among managerial positions is recorded in Latvia, the only member state where women are a majority (53%) in this position. It is followed by Bulgaria and Poland (both 44%), Ireland (43%), Estonia (42%), Lithuania, Hungary and Romania (all 41%) as well as France and Sweden (both 40%).

At the opposite end of the scale, women account for less than a quarter of managers in Germany, Italy and Cyprus (all 22%), Belgium and Austria (both 23%) as well as Luxembourg (24%). Malta is at the lower end of the spectrum, with 30%.

At EU level, about a third (35%) of managers are women.

Lowest gender pay gap for managers in Romania, largest in Hungary and Italy

Differences between women and men in managerial positions also concern wages. In every EU member state, male managers earn more than female managers, albeit in different proportions.

The gender pay gap in managerial positions is the narrowest in Romania (5.0%), ahead of Slovenia (12.4%), Belgium (13.6%) and Bulgaria (15.0%).

In contrast, a female manager earns about a third less than her male counterpart in Hungary (33.7%), Italy (33.5%) as well as the Czech Republic (29.7%), and about a quarter less in Slovakia (28.3%), Poland (27.7%), Austria (26.9%), Germany (26.8%), Portugal (25.9%), Estonia (25.6%) and the United Kingdom (25.1%).

It should be noted that the gender pay gap, as defined in this news release, is linked to a number of legal, social and economic factors which go far beyond the single issue of equal pay for equal work.