On average, women earn 16 percent less than men. Is this due to negotiating skills or structural influences? Current figures show what HR should know about unequal pay.
It is well known that women in the same positions earn less on average than their male counterparts. It is all the more surprising that Equal Pay Day is not well known among women. At least that’s what a survey commissioned by Kununu found. The employer comparison platform surveyed 1,033 people. 51 percent of those surveyed were women, the rest men.
According to the survey, 63 percent of women surveyed have never heard of Equal Pay Day. Among men, on the other hand, only 46 percent were unfamiliar with the day. But regardless of the level of awareness, various studies raise the question of whether the inequality in salaries is purely the employer’s fault or whether other factors come into play.
Equal Pay Day has been celebrated in Germany for 18 years and this year falls on February 27th. The basis for the date is the unadjusted gender pay gap of 16 percent calculated by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Accordingly, compared to men, women worked for free for the first 59 days of this year. Recently the value remained unchanged. This means that the sharp decline of two percent from 2023 to 2024 will not continue.
How is this actually reflected in salaries? According to Destatis, women earn 22.81 euros gross per hour, while men receive 27.05 euros. The difference is on average 4.24 euros per hour.
In which regions is the salary gap between men and women the highest?
The gender pay gap is slowly narrowing in Germany. But not everywhere. In some regions it is even getting bigger, reports the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (ifaa). Accordingly, the wage difference in West Germany was 18.9 percent, i.e. above the stated average of 16 percent. In East Germany, on the other hand, a gap of only 5.1 percent was reported. This value is actually topped by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where women earn on average only 2.4 percent less than men. Baden-Württemberg comes last in this study with an inequality of 25.7 percent.
At the district level, the Bodenseekreis is the least attractive place to work for women when it comes to salary. The 37 percent wage gap can serve as a legitimate reason for moving. But other districts such as Ingolstadt, Dingolfing-Landau and Freudenstadt were also unable to deliver positive results from the investigation. The Dessau-Roßlau district with -1.6 percent, Stendal with -1.2 percent and Frankfurt/Oder with -1 percent are even more worthwhile for women.
A possible reason for these regional differences is that low-skilled and highly qualified men and women are distributed unequally across these regions. This means that in regions with a low wage gap, gender qualifications are also close. The size of the company is also a factor that comes into play here. The salary gap is often smaller in smaller companies than in large companies.
Furthermore, the minimum wage must not be ignored here. Women have benefited significantly more from the gradual increase in the minimum wage, as they are more likely to work in the low-wage sector than men. According to a study by Dr. Clemens Ohlert from 2024 led to a greater increase in wages for women than for men, thus reducing the gender pay gap. Ohlert is a scientist at the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA).
Structural conditions make the difference when it comes to the gender pay gap
The numbers make it clear: macroeconomic aspects such as regional wage structure, company size and professional field influence the wage gap more than internal compensation systems. According to the authors of the IAB study, the extent of childcare also plays a role in the gender pay gap, as women are still more likely to forego their careers in order to pay for childcare. At the same time, however, the study authors point out that aspects such as flexible working hours and support when returning to work after parental leave can also reduce the wage gap – these aspects are the responsibility of the employer. According to the IAB, there is still room for improvement here.
How larger structural and societal conditions affect the wage gap also becomes clear when you compare the gender pay gap with the adjusted gender pay gap. According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, this will remain stable at 6 percent in 2025. It is so much lower because structural influencing factors are taken into account. These relate to the person and activity, such as qualifications, training, industry, profession and professional position. When it comes to remuneration, a distinction is made between standard and variable remuneration components. But the work context is also taken into account with aspects such as company size, scope of employment and type of employment.
This determines an upper limit for possible gender-based pay discrimination. If additional pay factors such as career breaks, care periods or shift allowances are taken into account, the difference is likely to be even smaller, according to Destatis. Ifaa sees a possible solution to significantly reduce the structural differences in better framework conditions, especially in childcare and care.
Salary negotiations affect the wage gap
In many places, who earns how much depends on the demands of employees and their persistence in this regard. At least if there is no compensation system that is based on clearly defined and fair factors. This is why salary negotiations can have a big impact on the wage gap. When changing jobs and negotiating salaries, men get more benefits than women. This can be found in the Stepstone salary survey 2026, for which a total of 297 recruiters and 3,070 employees in Germany were surveyed.
According to this, men achieve an average salary increase of 10 percent when changing jobs, while women only manage 5 percent. As a result, labor market researcher Anna Wittich from the Stepstone Group sees salary negotiations as an “increaser of inequality”.
This result is influenced, among other things, by whether people feel comfortable during negotiations or not. For example, 44 percent of those who feel comfortable negotiating received a salary increase. In contrast, only 32 percent of the people who felt uncomfortable did this. The salary report cites a power imbalance at the negotiating table as the reason for this, as managers were much more likely to say they were good at negotiations, while skilled workers were much more likely to enter such discussions with uncertainty. According to Destatis, the proportion of female managers in Germany was only 29.1 percent in 2024. It can therefore be assumed that the proportion of men who feel comfortable in negotiations is significantly higher than that of women.
Employers can influence how many management positions they fill with women and thus put them in more negotiating positions. But at the same time, everyone has to acquire negotiation skills and self-confidence in discussions about salaries.
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Women are pessimistic about their chances of receiving salary increases
Many women simply accept their current salary as it is. This was the result of the salary survey commissioned by the job exchange Jobtensor.com from January 2026. This evaluates the answers from 1,056 employees nationwide. This clearly shows that employees are not being very proactive about their salaries. Only 22 percent of women and 27 percent of men surveyed plan to ask their employer for a raise this year.
When it comes to salary adjustments in general, female employees also take a much more pessimistic attitude than their colleagues. Only 42 percent of female respondents assume that their employer will increase salaries without asking. With 59 percent of male respondents, there is a generally more positive mood here.
“Our figures show that many women are more reserved when it comes to salary, even though they have objectively good arguments on their side,” says Thomas Hense, Managing Director of Jobtensor, about the results. “Regardless of the current economic situation, employers should react to this and work to reduce the salary gap between men and women. Because only transparent and fairly paying employers are perceived as attractive employers by qualified specialists.”
Transparent salaries required
Up to now, employees can only assume whether there is equal pay in companies or not, because many people do not yet have any insight into the salaries of their colleagues. Accordingly, opinions differ here, as the salary survey commissioned by jobtensor revealed. 38 percent of the women and 23 percent of the men surveyed assume that there is no salary equity at their current employer.
The majority of employees surveyed were in favor of transparent disclosure of salary data. In addition, almost two thirds of all employees find companies that play with open cards more attractive. Approval is particularly high among women. 70 percent find companies with transparent salary structures more attractive.
In addition, employees can get a realistic picture of their salary and are generally more informed in negotiations when salary structures are disclosed.
What could soon help here: The EU Pay Transparency Directive (EU 2023/970) must be implemented into German law by June 2026. The aim of the directive is to disclose pay structures across Europe and thereby free them from discrimination.
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Collective agreements as a person-independent solution
A possible solution to avoid gender-related injustices is to tie salaries to the respective role. Regardless of the person doing the work, the same work of equal value is paid equally, regardless of gender. According to some experts, if used correctly, collective agreements can provide a remedy here. “Collective agreements, for example in the metal and electrical industries, ensure that work tasks are assessed independently of people and thus make an important contribution to equal treatment,” says Andreas Feggeler, research associate at ifaa, Institute for Applied Ergonomics.
Based on all of these findings, it is clear: equal pay is a goal that is influenced by numerous structural, company-internal and personal factors. If you want to close the wage gap, you have to keep all of these on your radar.
