Women in Latvia earn 10% less than men in the same position

11 May 2019

Paylab works in Latvia as salary information database Algas.lv administered by CV-Online and after a long-term research of salary trends in separate position levels has concluded that men in Latvia on average earn 10% more than women in an equal position.

Family vs. professional life

The difference in the pay is attributable to the fact that most often women take parental leave resulting in their career being paused. The necessity to balance family and work life often leads to women taking a job that doesn’t require a lot of time resources. Moreover, women tend to lean less towards manager positions in comparison with men.

Currently companies are trying to invest in greater diversity in work places and providing suitable circumstances for women, thus ensuring equal carrier opportunities and motivation for them to sooner return back to work after parental leave.

Choice of profession

Another factor, which determines the income difference, is a tendency of women to choose work in lower-level positions. The choice of the profession has a significant impact on overall pay. For example, women dominate fields of administration, accounting, healthcare, human resource, education and pharmaceutical. On the other hand, men dominate in fields with higher pay, for example, IT, management, transport and logistics, construction, energy, telecommunication and technology.

Fields with highest balance ratio between men and women are trade, art and culture, banking, marketing, tourism and services.

Women have greater opportunities than ever before

Work gives higher financial independence. Society’s perception of women’s professional needs has gradually changed. For example, the Millennial generation has much greater carrier opportunities when compared to previous generations. Greater confidence and professional ambitions can be observed among women due to existing work experience.

In European Union approximately 6 out of 10 women are employed

Women’s employment in European Union is about 66.5%, while in Latvia it is approximately 72%. According to Eurostat data, women’s employment in EU has increased by 6% over the last ten years.

Article was created in collaboration with Paylab