Gender pay gap in private sector is narrowing

© Tineke Dijkstra
The average hourly wage for women in the private sector in the Netherlands in 2024 was 14.5 percent lower than that for men. In 2022, the gap was 16.4 percent. Even when differences between individuals, jobs and employers are taken into account, the gender pay gap has narrowed from 6.9 percent to 6.1 percent. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this on the basis of the 2024 Monitor of Differences in pay between men and women.

Gender gap in public sector is no longer narrowing

The gender pay gap is narrower in the public sector than in the private sector. Women in the public sector in 2024 earned an average of 4.5 percent less than men, compared to 5.1 percent in 2022. When differences between individuals, jobs and employers are taken into account, women earned 1.7 percent less. However, this difference does not deviate statistically from the gender pay gap in 2022, due to a small margin of error in the figures. This marks the end of the narrowing of the gender pay gap in the public sector that has been underway since 2014.

Larger wage differences among older workers

Women's average hourly wages are higher than men's when they are younger. In the private sector, the tipping point comes at the age of 26. From that age onwards, men earn more than women, and this difference increases with age. Among workers aged 45, women in the private sector earned an average of 6 euros less per hour than men in 2024, while women aged 60 earned almost 9 euros less per hour.

In the public sector, women under the age of 40 earn a higher average hourly wage than men. However, the differences in pay are smaller than in older age groups, where men earn more than women, on average. The gender pay gap is narrower among older employees in the public sector than it is in the private sector. Among 60-year-olds, women working in the public sector earned an average of 4 euros less per hour than men.