Women in Croatia are still paid less than their male counterparts. Why?

Even when it comes to the same job, women are paid less than their male counterparts

8. March 2022.

Despite the efforts made in recent years to promote greater gender equality in the domestic labor market, women in Croatia continue to be underpaid compared to men.

This was confirmed by the research conducted by the service on the occasion of this year's International Women's Day My salary, by comparing the monthly incomes of men and women in different occupations. Somewhat surprisingly, the largest differences in monthly income are found among those with the highest level of education.

Salaries are still on the side of men

According to research, women in Croatia have as much as 16% lower salary than men. More specifically, the average salary of men is 7.933 kuna, which is one thousand two hundred kuna more than the monthly income of women (6.651 kuna).

Interesting, the biggest differences in salary we find among those with the highest level of education - women with a postgraduate degree or MBA in business school have a 21% lower salary compared to equally educated men. The smallest differences are present among employees with secondary education, where female workers are 17% lower paid than their male counterparts.

Along with years of work experience, the income gap is growing

Also, instead of the gap in monthly income is reduced by years of work experience, it is increasing.

Namely, women who have less than a year of work experience earn 10% less than equally (inex) experienced men. Among those with 3 to 5 years of service, the pay gap grows to 16%, and the largest disparity (18%) is found in employees with more than six years of experience.

Related to this, the pay gap is smallest for workers aged 17 to 24, where women are on average 13% less paid than their male counterparts. The difference increases to 16% among those aged 25 to 34, to 18% in the age group of 35 to 44 years, while the pay gap is the largest among the workforce older than 45 (21%).

We find the biggest gap in Međimurje County

The biggest inequality in the salaries of men and women we find in Međimurje (-22%) and Split-Dalmatia County (-20%). On the other hand, this gap is least pronounced in Požega-Slavonia (-1%) and Virovitica-Podravina (-4%) counties.

Foreign-owned private companies make the biggest difference

Among companies, at least when it comes to their size, there isn’t too much difference in how much they bribe their workers. Thus, the smallest difference in the monthly income of men and women in companies is from 50 to 249 employees (-14%), while the largest (-16%) is in companies with over 1000 employees.

On the other hand, the wage gap is more visible in private companies than in state-owned companies. More specifically, in privately owned private companies women are paid 15% less than men, while in foreign companies they are paid 18% less. In state-owned companies, men earn 8% more, just as in public and local self-government and associations.

The income disparity is most present among companies from the Sales (-19%), Finance (-17%), IT and Telecommunications (-17%), Tourism (-17%) and Manufacturing (-17%) sectors.

The largest efforts in equalizing wages were made by companies operating in agriculture (-4%) and public administration (-5%).

In the same job, women are paid on average 8% less than men

One of the reasons why women earn less than men, in addition to the fact that they more often put their career on hold due to family reasons, is that women more often work in lower paid activities such as tourism and catering and sales. If we look at salaries by position, women on average have 8% less salary than men in the same job.

Looking at the job position, the biggest difference in salaries by gender is present in the following positions: designer (women are on average 38% less paid), tailor (-33%), finance director (-33%), database administrator (-33 %) and customer relationship manager (-30%).

On the other hand, women are on average paid more for radio or TV presenters (women are 40% paid more than men), media planners (+ 39%), IT managers (+ 35%), occupational safety coordinators (+25 %) and business development managers (+ 20%).

Wages in other countries - Paylab

The latest analysis of the international website Paylab.com, which is part of the MojaPlaća service, confirms that women earn less in other countries as well.

In the countries of Central Europe we can see more significant differences in wages than in other European countries. This is mainly due to the different orientation of the economy with a more balanced representation of both sexes in the most sought-after positions in the labor market.

Compared to the countries in the heart of the oldest continent, the difference in Croatia is much smaller. While women in Croatia earn 16% less than their male counterparts, in Poland the difference is as much as 26%, while in Slovakia and the Czech Republic women earn 24% less than their male counterparts.

Happy Women's Day.