The gender pay gap in Belgium continues to narrow slowly; when adjusted for working hours, women's average gross annual earnings are now 8% lower than men's, announced the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men on Tuesday.
While the average woman's gross annual earnings are now "only" 8% lower than those of the average man working the same hours, the gap still widens to 21% when no adjustment for working hours is made. The fact that women are more likely to work part-time is one of the main reasons for this.
'Moving in the right direction'
"In general, the figures are moving in the right direction. For many indicators, we see a decrease of half a percentage point. In light of the trend in previous years, we can call this a good year," said Liesbet Stevens, deputy director of the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men.
"Of course, this does not alter the fact that there is still a long way to go to achieve equal pay. A proactive policy is therefore essential to close the gender pay gap," she added.
Women working in the private sector face the largest pay gap; as much as 20.5% to 44.1% without adjustment for working hours. On a positive note, the pay gap for this category is now showing a steadily decreasing trend.
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"Female workers are a particularly vulnerable socio-professional group. These include domestic workers, kitchen helpers and production workers," Stevens said, adding that insecure contracts, part-time work and harsh working conditions are more common for these types of contracts.
"Low wages also increase the risk of subsistence insecurity. It is encouraging that the wage gap is narrowing for this category of workers," she added. These new figures are based on the full 2021 data from the National Social Security Office (NSSO). In 2021, employment rates and wages increased compared to 2020.
