TOP 10 Countries with Lowest Gender Pay Gap (2025)
Wages and incomes of the population • Ranking (Top 10) • 2025 snapshot
“Gender pay gap” is often used as a shortcut for a very complex reality. In official statistics it usually means one headline number: the difference between men’s and women’s average hourly earnings across the economy. That number is shaped not only by pay policies, but also by who works in which sectors, who works full-time versus part-time, who reaches senior roles, and how career breaks are distributed. This page focuses on the most comparable and consistently published EU benchmark: Eurostat’s unadjusted gender pay gap.
Methodology (what exactly is ranked here)
- Indicator: Eurostat “unadjusted gender pay gap” (GPG) — the difference between average gross hourly earnings of men and women, expressed as a % of men’s earnings.
- Coverage: calculated for enterprises with 10+ employees; economy coverage follows Eurostat’s standard scope for this indicator (industry, construction and services, excluding parts of public administration/defence), which is why the figure is comparable across EU countries.
- Why a “2025 snapshot” uses 2023 data: wage microdata are published with a lag. Eurostat’s latest comparable release (extracted in March 2025) provides the most consistent “current” baseline for a 2025 reading of the landscape.
- Ranking rule: countries are sorted from the smallest value to larger values. Negative values are allowed (they mean women’s average hourly earnings are higher within the measured scope).
- What it does NOT mean: this is not proof of “equal pay for the same job.” Because the indicator is unadjusted, it mixes together occupation, working time, seniority, and sector structure effects.
Why does the “lowest gap” matter at all if it’s unadjusted? Because it still captures structural outcomes that affect households and long-term wealth. When gaps are consistently small, it usually means at least one of the following is true: wage-setting is more transparent; pay bands are more standardized; collective bargaining is stronger; or women are represented more evenly in higher-pay roles. The ranking is a starting point for learning which combinations of policies and labor-market structures produce better outcomes.
A crucial nuance: a low gap can sometimes coexist with other inequalities. For example, if fewer women work full-time, or if women are under-represented in senior leadership, the unadjusted gap may look small for reasons that don’t translate into equal lifetime earnings. That’s why this page includes a deep-dive in Part 2 (drivers and pitfalls) and Part 3 (what it means + FAQ + sources).
Top 10 Lowest Gender Pay Gaps — EU (latest official values used for the 2025 snapshot)
The table below lists the ten EU countries with the smallest unadjusted gender pay gaps in the latest Eurostat release for the reference year 2023. Some values are marked as provisional in Eurostat’s map/table view; they are included as published.
| Rank | Country | Gender pay gap (%) | Quick interpretation (headline only) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Luxembourg | -0.9% | Negative gap: women’s average hourly earnings are slightly higher in the measured scope. |
| 2 | Belgium | 0.7% | Near-zero headline gap; often associated with structured wage-setting and tighter dispersion. |
| 3 | Italy | 2.2% | Very low gap; needs context on employment structure, seniority and role distribution. |
| 4 | Romania | 3.8% | Low headline gap; interpret alongside sector mix (industry vs services) and participation. |
| 5 | Malta | 5.1% | Low-single-digit gap; doesn’t rule out differences within specific industries. |
| 6 | Slovenia | 5.4% | Low gap overall; Eurostat highlights that working-time splits can vary strongly. |
| 7 | Croatia | 7.4% | Single-digit gap; often reported as provisional in the latest country map view. |
| 8 | Poland | 7.8% | Single-digit gap; can conceal wider differences by sector and job level. |
| 9 | Ireland | 8.6% | Single-digit gap; interpret with multinational sector structure and job mix. |
| 10 | Portugal | 8.6% | Single-digit gap; still meaningful in lifetime earnings and pension outcomes. |
In the next block (Part 2) we turn the ranking into analysis. We break down why “low gap” happens, what a negative value can mean, and why the gap often changes when you split the data by working time (full-time versus part-time) or by sector. That’s the missing piece in most viral charts: the headline number is useful, but it’s easy to misread without understanding what it captures.
Insights: why “low gap” happens (and how it can be misread)
Countries at the top of the “lowest gender pay gap” list tend to share a few structural features: more standardized pay-setting, stronger enforcement, and less room for opaque discretionary pay. But it’s critical to separate mechanisms that genuinely improve pay parity from mechanisms that can shrink the headline number without eliminating inequality.
1) Pay-setting institutions: transparency and structured wage grids
When pay bands are clearer (by law, by collective bargaining, or by widely used job evaluation frameworks), two effects follow. First, it is harder to “drift” into hidden disparities via ad-hoc bonuses or negotiation advantages. Second, it becomes easier to detect anomalies early, because HR and worker representatives can compare roles and grades directly. Eurostat notes that pay differences across sectors and employment types can be large; the more transparent the underlying pay architecture, the more likely the headline gap stays low across the economy rather than only in a few segments.
2) Sector structure: where people work matters
The unadjusted gap is an economy-wide average. If a country has a large share of employment in sectors with narrower wage dispersion (or with more regulated pay), the headline gap can be lower even if top leadership remains male-dominated. This is why you should treat the ranking as a “map,” not a full explanation. The same country can have near-zero overall gap and still show meaningful gaps inside finance, technology, or senior management layers.
3) Working time: full-time vs part-time often changes the story
Eurostat’s own analytical note is blunt: pay gaps can look very different once you split by working time. The reason is selection and sorting. In many labor markets, part-time work is more common among women, often due to caregiving. Part-time roles can cluster in lower-paid occupations, and promotion pipelines can be weaker. Conversely, in some countries the small group of women who work part-time may be concentrated in higher-skill roles (a selection effect), which can flip the gap in that subgroup. That is one reason why a small headline gap should be validated against additional indicators, such as employment rates, part-time shares, and leadership representation.
4) Negative gaps: what Luxembourg’s value can mean
A negative unadjusted gender pay gap means women’s average hourly earnings are slightly higher than men’s in the measured scope. This can happen for several reasons: (a) workforce composition, where high-paid sectors have relatively higher female representation; (b) cross-border commuting effects and job mix; or (c) selection, where the women who remain employed in certain groups are on average more qualified than the men in that subgroup. In other words, a negative value is not “end of history” — it is a signal that the average outcomes differ in the opposite direction, and the “why” still needs investigation.
One more nuance: the unadjusted pay gap is not the same as “pay discrimination in equal roles.” Discrimination can exist even when the headline gap is small, and the headline gap can be large even when pay systems in identical roles are mostly compliant — simply because occupational segregation is strong. The correct way to read the headline indicator is: “How different are average hourly earnings outcomes for men and women in this economy, under a standardized statistical scope?”
With that in mind, the charts below visualize (a) the Top 10 values and (b) a simple EU-level change over a decade (from 2013 to 2023) as commonly cited in EU summaries. Both charts include a guaranteed fallback, so the page never shows an empty area if Chart.js fails to load.
Charts
Chart 1 — Top 10 lowest gender pay gaps (%), EU (latest official values used for the 2025 snapshot)
Chart 2 — EU average unadjusted gender pay gap: 2013 vs 2023 (two-point view)
- 2013: 16%
- 2023: 12%
What this ranking means for readers
If you’re reading this as a worker, the most practical lesson is simple: the pay gap is often a product of pay transparency and career structure. In countries where pay bands are clearer and promotion frameworks are easier to audit, the room for unexplained differences shrinks. But the headline number still won’t tell you what happens in your specific occupation. A near-zero national gap doesn’t guarantee fair outcomes inside every employer, and a larger national gap doesn’t prove your employer is discriminatory — it can reflect sectoral patterns and the distribution of men and women across roles.
If you’re reading this as an employer, the ranking is a preview of where regulation is moving. The EU’s Pay Transparency Directive sets a concrete implementation timeline. Even if your country currently looks “good” on the headline metric, the direction of travel is toward more reporting, clearer pay information for candidates and employees, and stronger enforcement mechanisms. This means internal documentation (job evaluation, pay bands, variable pay rules) becomes a business asset: it reduces compliance risk, speeds up hiring conversations, and lowers the probability of expensive disputes.
If you’re reading this as an analyst or policymaker, treat the unadjusted pay gap as the start of a dashboard. The most meaningful follow-ups are: (1) occupational segregation (who works where), (2) the motherhood penalty and return-to-work patterns, (3) working-time splits and childcare constraints, and (4) leadership pipelines. The headline gap is powerful because it is comparable — but it is not self-explanatory.
FAQ (plain language)
Does a low gender pay gap prove “equal pay for equal work”?
No. The Eurostat indicator is unadjusted. It compares average hourly earnings across the economy, not like-for-like roles. A low value is encouraging, but it can coexist with occupational segregation or unequal representation in senior leadership.
Why can the gap be negative (like Luxembourg)?
Negative means women’s average hourly earnings are higher than men’s within the measured scope. That can happen due to sector mix, job composition, and selection effects. It doesn’t automatically mean every industry is parity-perfect.
Why is this called “2025” if the reference year is 2023?
Wage microdata are published with a lag. A “2025 snapshot” uses the most recent comparable official release available across countries. The key is comparability (same definition and scope), not the calendar year printed in the headline.
Is Eurostat the same as OECD’s “gender wage gap”?
Not necessarily. OECD often uses median earnings for full-time employees and may define coverage differently, which can change rankings. Always compare indicators with the same definition before drawing conclusions.
What changes with the EU Pay Transparency Directive?
EU Member States must transpose Directive (EU) 2023/970 by 7 June 2026. The directive strengthens access to pay information, reporting obligations (phased by employer size), and enforcement mechanisms. Over time, this should improve detection of unjustified gaps and make pay-setting more transparent.
What should I look at next, beyond the headline pay gap?
Add at least one “structure” metric: female employment rate, part-time share differences, women in management, and sector distribution. These explain whether the headline gap is small because the system is fairer, or because men and women are sorted differently across jobs.
Sources (official / international)
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Eurostat — Gender pay gap statistics (Statistics Explained)
Overview article with definition, EU average, country variation, and methodological notes (data extracted March 2025).
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Eurostat — Gender pay gap statistics (PDF)
Printable Eurostat brief including the definition and coverage details (enterprises with 10+ employees) and references to the underlying datasets.
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Eurostat Data Browser — sdg_05_20 (country values)
Interactive country map/table for the unadjusted gender pay gap; includes the latest published country values and provisional flags where applicable.
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EUR-Lex — Directive (EU) 2023/970 (Pay Transparency)
Legal text of the EU Pay Transparency Directive, including the transposition deadline and reporting timeline by employer size.
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OECD — Gender wage gap (indicator)
OECD indicator page with definition notes and access to OECD series (useful for non-EU comparisons and alternative definitions).
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European Parliament — Understanding the gender pay gap
Plain-language explanation of causes and context; includes summary by-country highlights for the latest Eurostat-based year.
Download the data & charts archive
CSV tables + chart images for “Top 10 Countries with Lowest Gender Pay Gap (2025)”.
