The salary difference between men and women continues to decline, but the gap remains

The difference between what men and women earn has become smaller again. However, the wage difference remains large in the business community, according to new figures from the Netherlands Institute for Economic Policy Analysis Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) about hourly wages in 2022.

In the business world, women earned 16.4 percent less than their male colleagues last year. In 2020, this difference was still 17.3 percent. The differences in salaries are therefore still large. However, it is less than at the start of the biennial measurements in 2014, when women in the business world earned more than 19 percent less.

In hard figures, men earned an average of 23.30 euros per hour in 2014 and women 18.90 euros. Last year this was 22.90 euros for female employees and 27.40 euros for their male colleagues.

In government, the pay gap between men and women has fallen from 9.6 percent to 5.1 percent last year since 2014. At the previous measurement, in 2020, the difference was still 6.7 percent. On average it is 29.70 euros per hour for women and 31.30 euros for men.

The largest wage differences are found at the highest positions in the labor market. At companies, the difference between the highest-earning men and women was 10 percent last year. In the government sector this was almost as high at 9 percent. Among low earners, women actually earn slightly more than their male colleagues.

The figures from Statistics Netherlands are the so-called corrected wage differences. The differences in, among other things, the type of work, position, education and experience have been corrected.

In October, Intermediair and Nyenrode Business University calculated that the pay gap between men and women had actually increased in 2021. In addition to the regular salary, this also included the use of a company car, fuel card, profit sharing, thirteenth month and other allowances.