Abstract

With feminism on the rise, the word about the gender pay gap is gaining more awareness by the day gets more and more attention each day. The gender pay gap is defined as the difference in the average gross hourly earnings calculated and compared between women and men. In specific, it is based on salaries paid directly to employees before any added income tax and with the deduction of social security contributions. There are some commentators, however, who argue that the gender pay gap is largely a myth, mainly because of the argued lack of depth in the detailed comparison of the pay gap figures. According to the relevant statistics, however, working women in the EU earn on average 16% less per hour than men. The statistics agency Eurostat reports that the UK has the fourth-largest gender pay gap in the European Union. In the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics’ latest review, the gender pay gap among all employees, was at 17.3% in 2019. It therefore needs to be ascertained why the gender pay gap still exists and it also needs to be explained, why some academics regard it as a myth.