Gender wage gap plummets below 10% in Malta

The gender wage gap in Malta shrank to 8.7 per cent during the first quarter of 2023, down from 14.1 per cent in the previous year as women’s average wage growth outpaces men’s.

The average wage for women went up to €1,756 a month by the end of March 2023, up from earning €1,564 in the previous year according to data made available by the National Statistics Office.

The increase is driven mainly by an exponential increase in wages for women involved in manufacturing and other industries, the information and communication sector, and financial and insurance activities.

Men’s average wage stood at €1,924 a month by the end of March 2023, up from €1,821 in the previous year. Despite a shrinking wage gap, men still make 20 per cent more than women in financial and insurance activities.

The number of persons employed by the end of the first quarter of 2023 was 291,756, a 5.3 per cent increase compared to 2022 and accounted for 63 per cent of the population aged 15 and over. There were also 8,585 people registered as unemployed and 163,113 registered as inactive.

Among those registered as inactive, the most common reason (42.4 per cent) is due to the individuals being retired. It is also of note that there are twice as many men (47,114) who are retired as there are women (21,438).

The second most common reason is due to care and family responsibilities (23.4 per cent), 97 per cent of whom are women.

Self-employed persons accounted for 15 per cent of all persons with a main job, with just over a quarter of them employing others.

Meanwhile, among those employed, 87.9 per cent work full-time as their main occupation, while the rest work on a part-time basis, a proportion which is relatively unchanged from the previous year.