Women earn €158 less per month than men on average

On average, women earn €158 less per month than men, according to data provided as part of the National Statistics Office Labour Force Survey, for the third quarter of 2023.

The most significant gap was in the Financial and Insurance Activities categories. In this field, men earned on average €598 more.

Labour Force Survey estimates indicated that, during the fourth quarter, total employment stood at 305,218 accounting for 64.4% of the population aged 15 and over. Unemployed persons stood at 8,928 (1.9%) while inactive persons totalled 159,620 (33.7%). The activity rate for the quarter under review was estimated at 81.4% with the highest rate recorded among persons aged 25 to 54 (90.9%).

The Employed Population

On average, out of every 100 persons aged between 15 and 64 years, 79 were employed, the NSO said. “The male employment rate for this age bracket was 85.5% while that for females stood at 71.4%. The largest share of employed persons was recorded among persons aged between 25 and 34 years, for both males and females.”

Self-employed persons accounted for 14.4% of all persons with a main job. “The majority of employed persons worked on a full-time basis and amounted to 268,640.  A further 36,578 had a part-time job as their primary employment. Results show that, on average, full-timers usually worked 41.1 hours while part-timers worked 22.2 hours per week.” In the fourth quarter of 2023, employed persons actually worked 32.7 hours per week, 1.2 hours less when compared to the same quarter of the previous year, the NSO said.

“The average monthly basic salary of employees for the fourth quarter of 2023 was estimated at €1,837. The highest basic salary was recorded in the Financial and insurance activities sector.  Average monthly salaries varied from €1,120 among persons employed in elementary occupations to €2,959 among managers.”

The Unemployed and Inactive Population

The unemployment rate for the fourth quarter of 2023, stood at 2.9%. “The largest share of unemployed persons was recorded among persons aged 25 to 74 years. Females accounted for 59.1% of total inactive persons and those over 65 years made up the highest share of the inactive. The main reason for inactivity relates to persons reaching retirement age or taking up early retirement (43.3%).”

Education Attainment

More than 40% of persons aged 15 years and over had attained a low level of education (40.2%). By contrast, 35.3% of the employed had a tertiary level education.