Nezavisne novine: Women in the European Union on average earn 17.4% less than men, and the biggest inequality in that sense has been recorded in Estonia, has been shown by the European statistics published on the eve of the March 8th – Women’s Day.
Women – remedy for recession
The European Commission has warned that the global economic crisis will probably be worse on women than men, because women more often have insecure work positions. The Commission says that by employing more women the EU could get out of recession sooner. The research implemented in 15.000 small and middle companies in Finland, has shown that the companies led by women up to 10% more effective than those led by men. The recent research in France has also shown, that the companies which in their management boards have more women, are better rated in the exchange.
In the frame of campaign of strengthening the awareness on this problem, the European researches show that this inequality is mostly a consequence of underestimating the work of women, stereotypes and problems in harmonizing the carrier with a private life, despite of the fact that women make 60% of the University educated in the EU.
The problem has been most obvious in Estonia, where men earn 30.3% more than women, and then follow Austria, Slovakia, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Cyprus and Germany. Women in Ireland earn during their years of service even 160.000 Euros less than men, which makes an under-average difference of 17.1%. The smallest differences in salaries between women and men have been recorded, however, in Italy (4.4%), Malta (5.2%) and Poland (7.5%), but the percentage of employed women in those countries is relatively small.
"Solving this problem requires the action at all levels and dedication of all interested parties, going from the employers and unions to the national governments and each citizen", has been said by the European commissioner for social issues, Vladimir Spidla.
Smaller salaries mean that the aged women are more exposed to the risk of poorness because of smaller pensions. Therefore, 21% of women, who are over 65, are exposed to poorness, in contrast to 16% of men. "Discrimination makes ineffectiveness. We can face the crisis only if we use up the potentials of all our talents", Spidla has said.