RIGA - Women in the European Union earn 15 percent less than men and progress has been slow in closing gender gaps with men, a new European Commission report has found. The highest pay gaps were registered in Cyprus, Slovakia, Estonia, Germany, Britain and Finland.
Malta was reported to have the lowest pay gap between women and men amongst EU member states, followed by Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Greece and Poland.
Additionally, the Report on Equality Between Women and Men 2006 revealed that the gender gap in employment rates was more than 20 percent in Malta, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Italy, Spain and Greece.
Meanwhile, the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences carried out a survey last fall and found that women's salaries in Riga were 81.7 percent of what their male colleagues received, which translates to an average 35 lats (49.80 euros) less per month in take-home pay.
The biggest difference was observed in those occupations requiring the highest skills 's i.e., among managers and specialists. The inequality has been observed in both the public and private sectors, the survey's authors said.
Nearly one-third of female employees in the Latvian capital have witnessed a gender-discriminatory attitude at work, and one-tenth of women have experienced it themselves. Also, one-tenth of women have noticed that they earn less than males for doing the same job.
The survey, which analyzed factors determining the opportunities for women to enter the labor market, was conducted last fall as part of the Open Labor Market For Women project launched under the EQUAL initiative of the European Community.
The European Commission will submit its report to European leaders at the spring European Council on March 23 's 24.
