Men have been getting paid more than women on average, NSO data shows

Men get paid €17,813 on average, whereas women get paid €14,829, regional statistics from the NSO have shown.

The average gross earnings of the years 2010-2015 have been compiled from the Labour Force Survey to calculate the gross annual basic salary for the total employees.

The disparity gets worse though, as the study goes on to show that, in 2015, the lowest average gross annual salary for men was recorded at 17k whereas women’s wages were recorded at around €14,000. This means that, women’s average wage is still less than the lowest average wage of men.

The highest average gross annual salaries were €20,022 and €15,752, recorded for males and females respectively.

In 2014, the EU statistical office published data that listed Malta as having the second lowest gender pay gap (5.1 per cent) across member states, behind Slovenia (8.3 per cent). Figures published in 2016 now show that the pay rate for women is 11 per cent less.

The latest figures show that women’s gross hourly earnings were, on average, 16.6 per cent less below those of men.

Eurostat figures continued to show that Malta has the highest gender gap in the labour market at 27.8 per cent compared to the lowest, 2.1 per cent in Finland.

Awareness-raising campaigns undertaken by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE) attempt to bridge the gender wage gap. One of the campaigns, ‘Promoting Equal Opportunities through Empowerment’, targeted inactive women to attract them to the labour market. The ETC’s gender equality unit also issues bi-annual plans to address the low female employment rate.