Gender pay gap 8.5 percent in public administration jobs
The gender pay gap in public administration jobs was 8.5 percent in 2018, meaning if a man had earned €1,000 a month gross, a woman would have earned €915.
The 2018 Public Service Report states that in 2018, the average gross monthly salary of female employees in state and government agencies was 8.5 percent lower than that of male employees.
"However, the general gender pay gap does not take into account whether men and women work in different positions within a given institution," the report said.
If there is a difference in average salaries, this may be due to the fact that men and women work in different sectors where there are differences in terms of responsibility, or complexity, the report continued.
The report looked at how men and women are divided between different levels of positions in public authorities and public administrations.
Structurally, men have a higher share of senior and middle management roles such as chancellors, vice-chancellors, heads of departments, and heads of organizations.
But there are more women among lower-level managers and experts, and senior professionals. As a result, there are fewer women in managerial positions than men.
When comparing gender distribution figures of senior executives in ministries with other EU countries, Estonia has a higher than average share of men in managerial positions. The EU average is 63 percent men and 37 percent women. However, in Estonia, 77 percent of the senior managers of ministries are male and 23 percent are female.
In most EU countries there were more men than women in top jobs, but this was reversed in Slovenia, Lithuania and Poland. In Romania and Greece the level was almost equal.
The gap between the average monthly gross wages of men and women was greatest at the lower and upper levels of responsibility.
At the highest levels of senior management, men earn on average 10.8 percent more than women. However, the gender pay gap is the largest among assistants, workers, service workers, and skilled workers, with men earning 14.9 percent more. At the same time, the pay gap is partly due to the fact that male workers were paid more for overtime, on-call time, night time, and public holidays.
In the largest group with the largest number of men and women - specialists and skilled workers - the pay gap was 5.0 percent.
According to Eurostat, the overall gender pay gap in Estonia was 25.6 percent in 2017, one of the highest in the European Union.
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Editor: Helen Wright
