Luxembourg’s Gender pay Gap

Luxembourg has one of the narrowest gender pay gaps in the EU, at 7.2% (or 7.1% excluding the public sector) according to figures published by Luxembourg data gathering body Statec.

It found that in 2018 the average annual full-time salary in Luxembourg was €67,675 for a man, and €62,829 for a woman. The grand duchy placed second in the EU bloc behind Romania.

Statec found that women were under-represented in Luxembourg’s workforce, making up just four in every ten workers in Luxembourg, the lowest proportion of any EU member state.

Yet, they tended to be more qualified than their male counterparts–in 2018, 44% of women had a university degree compared to 35% of men (from 34% and 28%, respectively, in 2010).

“These transformations in professional profiles are the consequence of a profound change in education, where for the past fifteen years or so, young women have been graduating from the school system with more degrees than young men,” Statec writes, adding that the phenomenon was likely to increase more in future when considering the percentage of tertiary grades by age.

In 2018, just over a quarter of director and management roles were occupied by women. While it marked an improvement from 2010, when the proportion was just 18%, Luxembourg lags well behind other countries in the bloc. According to a separate report by Eurostat, across the EU, women made up 34% of managers, with the highest shares found in Latvia (45%) and Poland (44%).