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EU, labour equality is far off: 10% employment gap between men and women

Inequalities related to disability, gender and origin are still important in the countries of the bloc

by Davide Madeddu (Il Sole 24 Ore), Ieva Kniukštienė (Delphi, Lithuania) and Ana Somavilla (El Confidencial, Spain)

11 June 2025

4' min read

Equality at work in Europe is still far away. Differences are still being felt in mistakable ways. In 2024, employment inequalities related to disability, gender and origin were recorded in the European Union. Photographing this situation is the Eurostat report, which collected and analysed data on the various areas of inequality.

The gender employment gap in the EU stands at 10 percentage points, with an employment rate of 80.8 % for men and 70.8 % for women. Compared to 2023, there has been a slight improvement (-0.2 percentage points), and the comparison with 2014 shows a more marked reduction (-1.1 percentage points).

The gender gap

A further relevant aspect concerns the gender employment gap, which is particularly pronounced in the foreign-born population. "The employment rate for foreign-born men was 83.1 per cent," the report points out, "compared to 65.0 per cent for women. Moreover, foreign-born women had an employment rate 15.7 percentage points lower than native-born women'.

Even more marked is the employment gap between people with and without disabilities, at 24 percentage points.

Looking at the overall picture, 'six EU countries have gender employment gaps above the European average'. These are, in ascending order, Poland, the Czech Republic, Malta, Romania, Greece and Italy. The widest gaps are in Greece (18.8 points) and Italy (19.3 points), where less than 60 per cent of women are employed compared to more than 75 per cent of men.

"On the contrary," the paper further points out, "the gender employment gap is relatively small in the Baltic countries, such as Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, with a difference of around 3 percentage points or less, while in Finland it is almost negligible (0.7 percentage points)".

EU employment rate

In 2024, the overall employment rate in the European Union was 75.8%, ranging from 83.5% in the Netherlands to 67.1% in Italy. During the same period, 80.8% of men were employed compared to 70.8% of women.

Between 2015 and 2024, there was an increase of 7.8 percentage points in the employment rate among people with a low level of education.

There is no shortage of measures to close these disparities. In 2017, the European Commission, the Parliament and the EU Council jointly adopted the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, 'aimed at promoting fair and efficient labour markets and welfare systems across the Union'. Among the targets set for 2030 is precisely that of achieving a 78 per cent employment rate among people aged 20-64.

The Italy Case

The Italian picture shows further criticalities. According to ISTAT data from December 2024, among the approximately 3 million Italian citizens with severe limitations (equal to 5% of the population), only 32.5% are employed, compared to 55% among those with less severe limitations. Since 2009, the improvement has been minimal, starting from a percentage of 29.9%.

On the gender front, the Inps Gender Report 2024 confirms a wide gap: in 2023, the female employment rate in Italy stood at 52.5 per cent, compared to 70.4 per cent for men, a gap of 17.9 percentage points. Female recruitment accounted for just 42.3% of the total. Moreover, employment instability affects women most of all: only 18% of their hirings are permanent, compared to 22.6% of men.

Spain: gap narrows, but remains

In Spain, the picture appears less critical than in Italy, but the gender gap has not yet been overcome. In 2024, the employment rate for women aged 16-64 was 62.6 per cent, compared to 71.8 per cent for men, a gap of 9.2 percentage points, down from 10.8 points in 2015. There was an improvement, thanks in part to active policies: increases in the minimum wage, reduction of working hours for equal pay and reforms for contractual stability, all measures that benefited women in particular.

However, critical issues related to family care persist: 15.1% of inactive women declare that they do not work to care for children or family members, compared to just 3.5% of men. And the wage gap, although decreasing, still stands at 8.7 per cent.

Inequalities also affect people with disabilities: in 2023 their activity rate was 35.5%, about half that of the general population (78.5%).

Lithuania: apparent fairness, but strong regional disparities

Looking at Lithuania, the data show a substantial parity in the absolute number of employed men and women (722,600 men and 725,200 women in 2025). However, the female unemployment rate (8.7 per cent) remains higher than the male unemployment rate (8.2 per cent), with large territorial differences: in Visaginas, female unemployment exceeds 12 per cent, while in Neringa it stops at 2.5 per cent.

The picture for people with disabilities is particularly critical: out of more than 11,000 registered unemployed people with disabilities, about a quarter have no vocational training. Although there has been a slight improvement, in 2025 only 2,600 people with disabilities found work, often in administration or trade.

The greatest difficulties in employment concern the elderly, residents of rural areas and people with disabilities. In addition to lacking skills, older age and, for many foreigners, a lack of knowledge of the Lithuanian language are also factors.

*This article is part of the European collaborative journalism project "Pulse "