Women in the EU receive on average 13% lower gross hourly earnings compared to men, which, while smaller than the global gender pay gap of 20% as reported by the ILO, may not necessarily indicate greater gender equality, as it could simply reflect lower rates of female participation in paid employment in certain countries. It is economically sensible to increase female labor participation rates in developed economies, with our research indicating that the strongest factors influencing female labor supply are life expectancy, tertiary education attainment, and government expenditure on policies that support families and children. The impact of labor costs (wages) and the unadjusted pay gap is less significant. Our analysis suggests that if steps were taken to address this income gap, the resulting increase in income for women could be substantial, amounting to almost 11 times the annual female retirement income in France, 10 times in Italy, 6 times in Germany, and 3 times in Spain.
Learn more here: https://www.allianz.com/en/economic_research/publications/specials_fmo/gender-pay-gap.html
