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SMARTREE ANALYSIS: IN ROMANIA, THE AVERAGE GENDER PAY GAP IS 5%, BELOW THE EU AVERAGE
According to a Smartree analysis, one of the local leaders in the HR outsourcing market, Romania is recording a 5% gap between men and women average salaries, well below the European level. On the other hand, one of the discriminatory elements in the local recruitment processes is age, which is why the percentage of employees over 55 years is only 40%, as opposed to 55% at the European Union level.
Although in recent years companies have gradually adopted organizational policies aimed at eliminating pay gaps by giving equal opportunities to men and women at workplace, we can still see considerable differences at the wage level. However, despite the fact that the average salary gap between women and men at the level of the European Union is 16.3%, in Romania the gap is only 5%.
“We find that more and more employers in Romania are objective in terms of salary differences, relying on professionalism and respect for ethical principles. The trend is also supported in this context by the new generation of employees, who negotiate their work contract by other principles than their predecessors. Thus, wage differences tend to be lower or almost non-existent for young people aged up to 35, as well as those entering the labor market”, explains Raluca Penes, Smartree Human Resources Coordinator.
On the other hand, according to the Smartree analysis, Romania is one of the few countries in the EU where women’s employment rate has fallen slightly since 2000, settling around 58%, compared to 75% of male employees, a rate that grew over the past 5 years. Also, at the European Union level, there was a narrow gap in employment rates between men and women, resulting from the increase in the number of jobs occupied by women. The Smartree analysis is based on official data from Eurostat.
Also, even though women are more prominent from a professional perspective, from the entrepreneurial environment to the top management of large corporations, men are still more promoted than women and therefore better paid. At EU level, less than 6% of CEOs are women. One of the areas where women are least involved in leadership positions, the percentage being considerably in favor of men, is the political environment.
Age discrimination in the recruitment process
At the local level, age is at the top of the elimination criteria in the recruitment process, the percentage of Romanian employees over 55 years is maintained at 40%, much lower than the EU average of 55%. This further demonstrates a reluctance of companies to hire older people.
“There are still local bias employers who include discriminatory elements in recruitment processes such as age, certain degrees of disability, ethnicity and, possibly in some parts of the country, nationality. Thus, some companies reject candidates of a certain, without giving them the chance to establish at least one interview. On the other hand, certain elements, such as sexual orientation or race, are not yet the target of discrimination on the Romanian labor market.
Medium and long-term estimates regarding the aging and declining population of Romania will cause local companies to turn their attention to certain currently underprivileged categories,” said Raluca Penes, Smartree HR Coordinator.