In Luxembourg, women earn a slightly higher hourly wage than men; however, men tend to earn higher annual salaries.

National statistics office Statec has released the latest figures on the gender pay gap ahead of International Women's Day on 8 March.

In 2022, women earned a slightly higher hourly wage on average compared to men, with €30.72 per hour compared to €30.50. The median hourly wage (remuneration level which divides a set of employees into two equal groups) was €25.60 for women, and €23.01 for men.

However, the wage gap still favours men when it comes to annual salary, earning an average of €73,154 per year, compared to an average of €62,975 per year for women.

RTL

© Source: Statec

The figures are explained by the fact that a small percentage of men in Luxembourg earn high salaries and receive extremely high bonuses. The average bonus is €12,267 per year for men and €8,331 for women.

In addition, women are more likely to work part-time, with 36% of Luxembourg women on part-time contracts, compared to fewer than 8% of men. On average, women work 10% fewer hours.

Over half of men in Luxembourg earn less than €25 gross per hour. The proportion of earners with average salaries (between €25 to €50 per hour) and high salaries (€50 to €75 per hour) is greater among women.

However, the situation is reversed for very high salaries (€75 or more per hour), with 3.3% of men falling into this category, compared to just 1.9% of women.

Comparison with neighbouring countries

The Grand Duchy is the only European Union member state in which women have a higher average hourly wage than men.

Luxembourg became the only member state with a negative pay gap of -0.2% in 2021, according to the European gender pay gap indicator (GPG).

Statec calculated the indicator based on a common European methodology established by Eurostat, which represents the gap between men's average gross hourly wage of men and that of women, as a percentage of the men's average. A positive figure therefore indicates that men earn a higher average salary, while a negative figure means that women earn a higher average wage.

In 2022, this gap reached -0.7% in favour of women in Luxembourg, whereas in all other EU member states, men still earn a higher average hourly salary.

The European average GPG is 12.7%. In Germany, it stands at 17.7%, 13.9% in France and 5.0% in Belgium.