Malta has the highest share of inactive women due to care responsibilities in the EU according to a new report by the EU's centre on gender equality.

Three out of every 10 women in Malta, aged between 15 and 64 are inactive, mostly as a result of responsibilities tied to family care.

Published on Thursday, the report shows a direct link between the unequal division of unpaid care in households and gender inequality in the labour market.

Women who are inactive due to care responsibilities, as a percentage of total population (15- 64, EU-28, 2019). Illustration: EIGE.

Across the EU, the bulk of unpaid care work is done by women, while female employees spend 90 minutes more per day than employed men on unpaid care. 

According to the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), an unequal sharing of care limits women’s job prospects and is a major reason behind the gender pay gap.

A clear indicator of these inequalities is the unadjusted gender pay gap. It measures the difference between the average gross hourly earnings of female and male employees, and currently stands at 16% across the EU. 

A second indicator is the gender gap in overall earnings, which takes gender gaps in employment rate and working time into account. It gives an even clearer picture of this divide and is much higher across all countries, reaching almost 40% at EU level. 

A look at these two measures together gives a full picture of what is happening in certain countries. 

For example, the gender pay gap in Malta (10.6%), Italy (6.1%) and Romania (4.5%) is below the EU average. However, this is due to a low full-time employment rate for women in these countries, and the fact that the few women who are in employment tend to be highly educated and earn well. 

For this reason, the overall earnings gap in these three countries is much higher – respectively 43.9%, 43.7% and 26.8%, as it also considers the low full-time employment rates for women.

Gender gaps in the unadjusted gross hourly pay and in overall earnings, by country. Illutration: EIGE

Highest gender gap in time spent on housework

Malta might have registered the largest drop in the difference between the time that employed men and women spend on house care, however, it still has one of the highest gaps: employed women spend an hour more cleaning and cooking.

Across the EU, the gender gap in time spent on housework overall is similar to the gender gap in direct care, and has continuously reduced since 2005.

In 2015, employed women in the EU spent on average 42 minutes more than men on housework every day, and 42 minutes more on childcare and long-term care. 

Country heterogeneity is, however, lower for housework than for direct care, with gender gaps ranging from -0.5 hours in Slovakia to one whole hour in Malta.

This continuous narrowing of the gender gap in household care was observed in 11 member states, with the largest changes from 2005 to 2015 taking place in Malta and Hungary. 

Over-reliance on childcare services

Women’s over-reliance on childcare services is further reflected in 2018 data showing that 33% of women in employment or with previous employment reported a work interruption of at least six months for childcare reasons compared with a little over one per cent of men.

The lowest share of women’s work interruptions for childcare reasons were seen in Malta (13%), followed by Spain and Portugal (14% each), while the highest shares were reported in Estonia (68%), Bulgaria (67%) and Czechia (66%). 

The share of men who reported a career break for childcare reasons was four per cent or less in all member states except Sweden (13%).

The report Gender inequalities in care and consequences for the labour market is part of EIGE’s work on monitoring the EU’s progress towards its gender equality commitments under the Beijing Platform for Action.

It was prepared at the request of the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Across the EU:

92% of women provide unpaid care several days a week – as opposed to 68% of men. 

Employed women spend 90 minutes more per day than employed men on unpaid care. 

Women with children under 12 years using childcare services at least 14 hours a week are estimated to earn 4.8% more on an hourly basis, compared to women who do not outsource childcare. The estimated difference for men is 2.6%.

Women make up 37 million of the 49 million care workers in the EU.