The figures were released for International Women’s Day, which this year is marked by the #MeToo and Time’s up movements against sexual violence and harassment.
Eurostat said in a press release issued on the eve of International Women’s Day: “For every euro earned by the hour by a man, a woman made on average 84 cents.”
At 21 per cent each, the wage gap is particularly high in Germany and in Britain. It is the highest in Estonia, where women earned around 25 per cent less than men.
The figures were more encouraging for Romania, Italy and Luxembourg, with the gap at five per cent, while in France women earned 15 per cent less than men.
Pay equality is only slightly better in Europe than it is in the United States, where women earn on average 20 per cent less than their male peers.
On Tuesday, 15 of the European Commission’s 28 members published a joint declaration reaffirming gender equality as one of the EU’s top priorities, stressing that “equality between men and women” was one of the bloc’s “fundamental values”.
The past six months have been marked by the #MeToo and Time’s up movements against sexual harassment and abuse that emerged in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal, triggering a fierce, global debate about women’s right to equal pay and sexual freedom.
France in particular has embraced the movements, which have accelerated the urgent need to rethink attitudes towards sexual harassment and gender inequality.
President Emmanuel Macron in November announced that the state was launching a “cultural war” against sexism and sexual violence, adding that his government would foster awareness of gender equality in schools and make it easier for victims of rape, harassment or discrimination to press charges.
In addition, France’s gender equality minister Marlène Schiappa announced on Thursday that she and economy minister Bruno Le Maire were setting up an equal pay “task force” in an effort to close the wage gap between men and women.
She told France’s RTL radio: “France is the first European country to set up an equal pay task force.
Mrs Schiappa said that the task force would be composed of top entrepreneurs and economists, including the head of the luxury goods group LVMH Bernard Arnault, Sodexo chairwoman Sophie Bellon and World Economic Forum researchers.