The Gender Wage Gap by Age in the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract:

Even though the equalization of the rights of women and men implemented by the Republic of Croatia and the European Union through their policies of equal opportunities results in an increasingly better situation for women in the labour market, the gender wage gap still exists in all EU countries. Closing the gender wage gap involves an intensive effort by policymakers and employers to address these underlying issues. At the same time, Europe is facing an aging population trend due to increase in life expectancy, the decline in the birth rates and the increase in retirement age. The persistence and widening of the gender wage gap for certain age groups, emphasizes the importance of addressing structural barriers and implementing policies that promote gender equality in the labour market at all stages of an individual's career. The aim of this paper is to investigate gender wage gap for selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC) for the period 2013-2022 and to analyse how this differs across different age groups with special emphasis on Croatia. The findings suggest that the gap in Croatia is the most pronounced for workers in the age group 45-54, reflecting accumulated disadvantages over a lifetime, including lower lifetime earnings and retirement savings for women.  In other CEECs this gap is the largest for the younger age group (35-44).