Luxembourg had the lowest gap in pay between women and men but also had one of the European Union’s lowest share of female managers in the workplace, the EU’s Luxembourg-based statistics agency said on Monday.
Just 27% of managers at Luxembourg companies were women in 2020, a share better only than Cyprus and the Netherlands, Eurostat said in its report comparing facts gleaned about how life is different for women and men.
One detail that could skew that figure is that Luxembourg is one of the few EU countries where men outnumbered women in 2020. On average, there are 5% more women than men in the EU.
Women are also extending their working lives in the Grand Duchy without childcare responsibilities longer than almost any other country. Women in Luxembourg delayed the birth of their first child until they were 31 years old on average in 2019, Eurostat said, compared to the EU average of 29.
That could help explain why the pay gap between women and men was the smallest in Luxembourg. Though women earn 14% less than men in the EU on average, the difference in the Grand Duchy was just 1.3% in 2019, Eurostat said.
Despite its exemplary performance in levelling pay, Luxembourg has lagged in other gender-equality metrics.
The country’s Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CCDH) lambasted the Ministry of Equal Opportunities for Men and Women last year after evaluating the government’s action plan for combating gender inequality.
The commission’s review listed flaws in the government’s plan including the absence of concrete measures and deadlines, details about who is responsible to act and how to measure progress.
“This plan is only a collection of ideas and actions already in place”, the report by the commission created by law 12 years ago said. “It seeks in vain a real strategy as well as lacks an analysis of the causes of structural inequalities based on gender, especially in the areas of violence, work and employment”.
Unlike its neighbours Belgium, France and Germany, Luxembourg has no diversity requirements for private companies and is not considering introducing one, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Equal Opportunities for Men and Women said last year.
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