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Belgium has narrowest gender wage gap

11:00 09/03/2017

Nowhere in the world is the pay gap between men and women closing faster than in Belgium, writes De Standaard based on figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Collectively agreed pay scales are at the basis of the narrowing gender wage gap, according to the newspaper.

The median monthly wage of Belgian men is 3.3% higher than that of women, compared to 13.7% in France, 14.1% in the Netherlands and 17.1% in Germany. In the European Union, the median monthly gender wage gap is 19.1%.

The OECD figures show that the gap in Belgium has declined rapidly in recent years. In 2000, the median wage for men was 13.6% higher than that for women, compared to 11.5% in 2005 and 7% in 2010.

Economist Ive Marx of the University of Antwerp believes that the decline is due to the "strong institutionalisation of the wage-setting" in Belgium. Employee wages are increasingly based on set pay scales determined by collective agreement, a system that does not distinguish between men and women.

Written by Robyn Boyle