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Gender Pay Gap Austria – current salary differences

Gender Pay Gap Austria – current salary differences

The gender pay gap in Austria is still high: women currently earn on average 12.5 percent less than men – depending on the level of education, company size and other characteristics, this value varies. Our expert tips show what you can do about it in recruiting and as an employee.

Definition: Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap indicates in percent, how much less women earn on average per year than menIt is caused by discrimination in the workplace, unequal opportunities, traditional gender roles and a lack of childcare. Eliminating the gender pay gap is essential for real equality between women and men and gender equality in the workplace.

There is also an “unadjusted gender pay gap”, which does not take into account differences such as professional experience, educational qualifications or industries, but compares male and female employees as a whole. The “adjusted gender pay gap” shows how high the salary difference is that also exists between a woman and a man with comparable characteristicsCharacteristics include professional group, industry, company size, federal state, district, age or educational qualifications, professional experience and management responsibility.

How high will the gender pay gap be in Austria in 2024?

The unadjusted gender pay gap is 12.5 percent, the adjusted 6.3 percent – this is a significant improvement compared to 2023, when the unadjusted gender pay gap in Austria was 15.5 percent and the adjusted 11.3 percent. The basis for calculating the gender pay gap is the average annual salary in AustriaCurrent data is available from Stepstone Salary Report 2025, for which over 57,200 compensation data were evaluated. All data was checked and weighted by our compensation consultants. The information is representative of the working population at federal and state level according to the criteria of age, gender and university degree.

How big is the adjusted gender pay gap in Austria?

The adjusted gender pay gap describes the salary difference between women and men with identical characteristics. The adjusted gender pay gap is currently 6.3 percentWomen with the same characteristics as the men in this data set earn around 2750 euros less per year. This represents an improvement of 5 percent compared to the previous year, meaning that the gender pay gap is noticeably decreasing.

How big is the unadjusted gender pay gap in Austria?

The The unadjusted gender pay gap in Austria is 12.5 percent in 2024A woman working full-time earns on average 7,250 euros less than a man. About half of this - 3,500 euros - can be explained by the fact that women work in lower-paid jobs, have less professional experience or do not have management responsibility. The slightly larger share of around 3,750 euros, however, cannot be explained by statistical characteristics and the cause is to be found in unequal treatment and a lack of equal opportunities.

What does the gender pay gap look like in the different federal states?

The unadjusted gender pay gap is currently highest in Vorarlberg, where it is 17.1 percent, and lowest in Burgenland, where it is 10.2 percent. The adjusted gender pay gap is also highest in Vorarlberg, at 8.9 percent, and lowest in Vienna, at 4.8 percent.

Gender Pay Gap by Education & Personnel Responsibility

If we look at the gender pay gap according to different educational qualifications, we see that the highest gender pay gap exists among people with higher school qualifications (AHS, BHS, including teacher training colleges) - in this group women earn more than a fifth less than men - 22.7 percent. The adjusted gender pay gap in this group is still 7 percent, which corresponds to a loss of income for women of around 2,500 euros. The smallest gender pay gap according to educational qualifications, on the other hand, exists among compulsory school graduates, where the unadjusted figure is 5.8 percent and the adjusted figure is 2.7 percent.

And how does the gender pay gap differ between employees with and without personnel responsibility? For people without personnel responsibility, it is significantly lower (8.8 percent unadjusted, 5.7 percent adjusted), which means that women in this group earn an average of 2,250 euros less. For people with personnel responsibility, on the other hand, the gender pay gap is more than 14 percent, and still almost 9 percent adjusted - which corresponds to an income difference of 5,500 euros between women and men.

Gender Pay Gap by Professional Experience

The gender pay gap is smallest at the beginning of a career The unadjusted gender pay gap for people with 1 to 2 years of professional experience is 6.2 percent, the lowest adjusted value is found for people with less than 1 year of professional experience (4.8 percent). The highest gender pay gap, however, is seen for people with more than 25 years of professional experience - here it is more than 15.3 percent (and adjusted 7.1 percent). This means that women with more than 25 years of professional experience earn on average 10,500 euros less than men.

Why is the gender pay gap so high in Austria?

Martina Ernst, an expert and consultant on fair remuneration for employees and companies, gives three reasons for the high unadjusted gender pay gap based on current data:

  1. 50.6 percent of women work in part-time – and just under 13 percent of men (Statistics Austria 2023)
  2. 22.4 percent of women work in the low-wage sector – and only 9.3 percent of all men (Statistics Austria 2018)
  3. There are far fewer women in top positions: 12.2% in management, 26.8% in supervisory boards (Statista 2024, "proportion of women in management positions by 2024")

Why is the difference in the adjusted gender pay gap still more than 6 percent? For Ernst, this is due to the so-called "motherhood penalty" due to: "When two people start a new job, they develop in the same way at first; then the woman goes on maternity leave and parental leave at some point and if the salary increases are not regulated by collective agreement, she often starts where she left off. Women are also increasingly returning to part-time work and these are usually not very highly valued jobs. In addition, well-paid management positions are only available on a part-time or part-time basis. job sharing still in short supply.”

Why do women still earn less?

According to Martina Ernst, Two aspects are particularly important, the first concerns collective agreements: “The collective agreements of the male-dominated metal workers versus the female-dominated care professions are exciting: at the latest then you know that neither your own qualifications nor your personal level of responsibility enable you to receive the same wage, but that the industry and the negotiating power of the social partners are the decisive factors for the salary level.” The second aspect, however, is that Women would negotiate their career advancement and salary less often than men, because they expect companies to recognize their performance and take the first step on their own initiative. Both managers in companies and employees should take this into account when they conducting a salary negotiation.

What can you do about salary differences?

What Companies Should Do About the Gender Pay Gap

Martina Ernst first and foremost cites fairness towards female candidates as an important step in how companies can actively combat the gender pay gap in Austria: “Companies should Pay female candidates the salary that is due based on their role, responsibility and performance, even if the woman has asked for less.” Ernst also mentions internal quotas as a way to consciously bring women into leadership positions.

With regard to possible measures by politicians, Ernst states that they have finally recognised that childcare options but now everyone is waiting for the concrete implementation. It would also make sense to introduce mandatory pension splitting and to expand income reporting (which is currently mandatory for companies with 150 or more employees) – in the course of the implementation of the Pay Transparency Directive There will also be further legal requirements in 2025 and 2026.

What can individual workers do for themselves regarding the gender pay gap?

Here Martina Ernst warns: “Those who do not demand anything will be taken at their word and will receive exactly that: NOTHING.” Two valuable tips from her for preparing for salary negotiations: “Google the market value of your own function/product and get advice from friends and mentors about what they would charge for the job – this strengthens your own self-esteem. Prepare well and don’t forget that your superiors/contract partners are often not the decision-makers – so provide good arguments that are also consistent further up the hierarchy.” A clear insight into the data can also help – who are the top earners in Austria and how high is the average salary for my industry, my position, etc.? Martina Ernst also advises companies and employees on how to achieve fair remuneration. After working as a human resources manager in the financial industry, managing director and chairwoman of the supervisory board, she is now www.SalaryNegotiations.at and www.fairequalpay.com acting in an advisory capacity.

Tips for recruiting – tackling the gender pay gap

Especially in view of the current shortage of skilled workers in Austria It will become more necessary to reach out to even more potential workers and to invest in targeted Female Recruiting Nikolai Dürhammer also points out that the gender pay gap is an issue that all employers should address:

Of course, we have different salary ranges in different industries, which are normal and can also be expected. However, gaps often open up within a profession, particularly in terms of gender and age. The income gap for women is often already apparent during university studies - women expect around EUR 7,000 less in starting salary than their male colleagues. I would define fair as the same pay within an industry and with a similar level of education, regardless of gender. And care must also be taken between generations to ensure that the gap does not become too large. Especially in highly competitive job markets, this can give you an edge in the battle for talent. Those who treat and pay all employees fairly strengthen their employer brand.Managing Director of Stepstone Austria & Switzerland

What concrete steps can be taken in recruiting to combat the gender pay gap?

  • Evaluate recruiting processes: Evaluate existing recruiting processes and install a code of conduct to detect possible gender bias and propose concrete measures against it.
  • Unconscious Bias Training for Recruiters: What statements and phrases do you use when dealing with female applicants and what ideas or concepts are hidden behind them? How can this be avoided in the future?
  • Genderbias Decoder: With the help of the Genderbias Decoder Stepstone makes it easy to identify an unconscious gender bias in job advertisements discover.
  • salary transparency create: Provide concrete and realistic information in the job advertisements so that the scope for negotiation is clear from the outset.
  • open corporate culture: Transparency and open communication ensure that all employees are clear about how and where there are salary differences and why. This also includes salary satisfaction to raise and improve.

FAQ Gender Pay Gap

How big is the gender pay gap in Austria?

The gender pay gap in Austria is currently 12.5 percent. The so-called “adjusted gender pay gap” – when women with the same characteristics as men are compared with them – is 6.3 percent.

Why is the gender pay gap so high in Austria?

There are several reasons for this: around half of all women work part-time, more than 20 percent work in the low-wage sector, and there are far fewer women in top positions (12.2% in management, 26.8% in supervisory boards). There is also the so-called "motherhood penalty" - after maternity leave and parental leave, women often return to where they left off in terms of salary.

What is the Gender Pay Gap in Austria?

The gender pay gap in Austria is currently 12.5 percent – it indicates in percent how much less women earn on average per year than men.

When is the so-called Equal Pay Day in Austria based on the current gender pay gap?

Assuming a gender pay gap of 12.5 percent, Equal Pay Day is November 16, 2024 - the gender pay gap of 12.5 percent corresponds to 46 days. According to other calculations, Equal Pay was already on November 1, 2024 - based on a gender pay gap of 16.6 percent (source: Statistics Austria).

>> Original article on Stepstone read

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