Women vs. men

New figures: Where the pay gap is particularly wide

Demo on International Women's Day 2023 in Graz

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

Brand new figures from the Styrian state statistics show how much money women are really missing out on month after month. On the positive side: overall, we can afford more today than we could 20 years ago.

The province of Styria has analyzed the wage tax data from 2023 - a report that brings many injustices to light on International Women's Day. The differences between how much money women earn and how much money men earn are still huge.

In gross terms, women who work full-time all year round earn 18 percent less than their male counterparts. That is still 0.4 percent less difference than in 2022, the year before - so the pay gap is shrinking, albeit very slowly.

You can find a detailed overview of the pay gap between men and women in Styria here:

Which pay gap is the most meaningful?

There are various ways of calculating the gender pay gap.

• The unadjusted gender pay gap: This compares the gross median annual income of men and women in Styria in 2023 - without taking full-time or part-time work into account. It amounts to 35 percent.
• More interesting for a person's purchasing power is the net salary - i.e. what ends up in the account after deduction of taxes etc. Those who earn more pay more tax. The difference between men and women in Styria is 9813 euros per year, which means an income disadvantage of 31 percent .
• 53.5 percent of Styrian women work part-time, but only 15.7 percent of men.
• If you only compare full-time with full-time, Styrian women earn 18 percent less gross than men.
• If you compare full-time net - i.e. after tax - women earn 13.3 percent less than men.
• This difference can be explained on the one hand by career choices and on the other by discrimination against women.
• Source: Styrian statistics, issue 12/2024: Regional income statistics for employees in 2023

For a woman who works full-time all year round, an average of EUR 34,941 ends up in her bank account - EUR 2495.79 per month, 14 times. For a man, it is 40,804 euros net, or 2914.57 euros, 14 times a year.

In an EU comparison, Austria is almost at the bottom of the league - only in Estonia is the difference between men's and women's incomes greater. In Luxembourg, women even earn 0.7 percent more.

Gap widest in Bruck-Mürzzuschlag
The pay gap is not the same everywhere. It is smallest in Graz at "only" seven percent, but huge in Bruck-Mürzzuschlag at 21 percent (gross, full-time). And the amount also depends on age: "Women under the age of 30 earn around a fifth less than their colleagues, a figure that jumps to a third or more from the age of 35, particularly due to increased female part-time employment," the statisticians explain.

More purchasing power than 20 years ago
The general wage trends show that purchasing power in Styria has risen slightly - despite inflation in recent years. Since 2005, the average Styrian gross annual income has risen by 65.4 percent, while prices have only increased by 57.8 percent in the same period. Styrians can therefore afford more today than they could 20 years ago.

From a regional perspective, there are some considerable differences in income in Styria: the highest average gross annual income is achieved in the district of Graz-Umgebung with 45,571 euros, followed by the district of Leoben with 42,463 euros. The comparative figures are significantly more modest in the district of Liezen at EUR 36,404, in the district of Südoststeiermark (EUR 37,712) and in the district of Weiz (EUR 37,804).