Italy’s gender pay gap continues to widen

There was a nearly €8,000 difference between the average wages of men and women in 2022 in comparison to 2021, when it was around €6,700, the Observatory on Private Sector Employees of the National Social Security Institute (INPS) wrote in their annual report, adding that this number will only keep widening.

Italy’s average annual pay is €22,839, but while male workers have an average of €26,227 in their pay envelope, female workers have €18,305.

By comparison, in 2021, the average income of a man was €25,958, while a woman’s average income was €19,218, a difference of €6740.

The report also broke down the numbers in the different territories of Italy. Between the Islands and the northeast, the difference is €7,333.

The gender pay gap in Italy is growing but is not particularly marked compared to other OECD countries. However, the picture is aggravated by the fact that Italian workers receive very low salaries compared to the average in other countries.

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Italian gender pay gap stands at 8.7% compared to an average of 11.9%. The countries worse off, according to the OECD, are the United States, France and Germany.

In Italy, there are also more male workers (57.2%) than female workers, mainly because women face challenges in carrying on working and having a family and are often forced to give up their career, or take part-time jobs.

The pay differential by gender is “significantly correlated with the greater presence of part-time work among females”, INPS points out. Last year, 21% of male employees had at least one part-time working relationship, while among females the share of female employees with at least one part-time job in the year was around 49%.

(Federica Pascale | Euractiv.it)