Cyprus is sixth when it comes to the gender pay gap, with the difference being just above 6%, according to data released by Eurostat, ahead of International Women’s Day.
The gender pay gap is defined as the difference between male and female incomes as a percentage of male incomes.
Across the EU, the gender gap for median equivalised net income was close to 5% during the last decade, the Eurostat data show.
The equivalised disposable income is the total income of a household, after tax and other deductions, that is available for spending or saving, divided by the number of household members converted into equalised adults; household members are equalised or made equivalent by weighting each according to their age.
In 2021, in absolute terms, the median value for males was 18,774 euros, around 800 euros higher than the one for females (17,972 euros).
In 2021, considering the differences in the degree of urbanisation, the EU gender gap for net income was narrower for people living in rural areas than for those living in cities: 4.0% against 4.8%.
At the national level, gender income gaps were higher in cities than rural areas in 13 Member States, with Lithuania and Malta presenting the highest differences in terms of the degree of urbanisation: 8.5% and 7.3%, respectively.
Among the 14 countries where income gaps were higher in rural areas than cities, Austria (5.3%) and Italy (4.2%) presented the largest differences between the income gender gaps observed in urban and rural areas. Interestingly, in Austrian cities and Maltese rural contexts, the income gap was in favour of females: -1.7% and -4.4%, respectively.
