Even though 90% of Europeans think it’s unacceptable for women to be paid less than men, the average EU gender pay gap remained close to 13% in 2021. And there has been only a 4 percentage point decrease over the previous decade. This is despite the EU encouraging member states to implement legislation and policies to improve gender pay equality for decades.
Fortunately, a new EU pay transparency directive, adopted in April, will help to close this gap further. But even with this new law, this will not be an easy task. It will mean overcoming some significant drivers of wage inequality between men and women, including unconscious bias and stereotyping, differences in negotiation tactics and even new technology such as artificial intelligence.
