Women earn €158 less than men per month, according to recent national data.

National Statistics Office Labour Force data shows that in the final quarter of 2023, women earned on average €1,747 per month, compared to the average male monthly salary of €1,905. The national average was €1,837.

The most significant pay gap was recorded in financial and insurance activities – the most lucrative sector in the survey – where women earned almost €600 less than men per month.

This contrasted strongly with the same quarter the year before when women working in insurance and financial services earned €133 more than their male counterparts.

Meanwhile, the sector with the smallest pay gap was administration services for professional, scientific and technical fields, where women earned €59 less per month.

Women were also less represented in the workplace than men, who outnumbered them by over 35,000 employees – around 8,000 more than during the same period the year before.

The average salary for both men and women increased by almost an identical amount from the last quarter of 2022 to the following year, with both sexes seeing an average pay increase of just under €50 per month.

Jobs and salaries

Clerical support workers enjoyed the smallest pay gap, with men earning just €11 more than women on average per month.

When it came to managers and professionals such as doctors, lawyers and architects, however, the picture was more mixed.

While male managers earned €46 per month more than their female counterparts, male professionals earned a whopping €309 more per month.

The second biggest gap between the sexes was for service and sales workers, where women earned €189 less than men. 

Overall, wages varied by around €1,000 per month according to occupation, with managers pocketing almost €3,000 compared to around €1,100 earned by those in elementary occupations.

Inactive people

In the final quarter of last year, there were around 94,000 women listed as economically inactive - around 30,000 more than their male counterparts.

The biggest reason for women being out of the workplace was care or family responsibilities. Almost 36,000 women were listed as inactive due to family or care responsibilities, while the main reason for men being inactive was due to retirement.

Over 3,000 households were surveyed.