The gender overall earnings gap (GOEG) is a synthetic indicator that measures the income gap between working-age women and men aged 15 to 64. It takes into account the following three factors:
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In 2018 the GOEG for Switzerland was 43.2%. This means that women's income, based on all hours worked from age 15 to 64, is 43.2% lower than that of men. The value of this indicator decreases with time. Breaking down the indicator values according to age groups shows that the GOEG increases with age.
In comparison to the rest of Europe, the gender overall earnings gap in Switzerland is relatively large. This is mainly due to the high proportion of women who work part-time. The GOEG is above 20% in all EU countries.
Despite the differences in methodology, the GOEG calculated by Eurostat for Switzerland with a value of 43.3% in 2018 differs only slightly from the GOEG according to the "Swiss method" (43.2%).
Further information about the calculation methods of Switzerland and Eurostat is available in the report available in German and French under "Publications".
The most influential component of gender inequality in GOEG in Switzerland is the difference in the number of hours worked per month. An entire 21.5 percentage points of the 43.2% of the GOEG in 2018 are attributed to this component, followed by the hourly earnings component, which accounts for 13.3 and the employment rate component, with 8.4 percentage points.
Breaking it down by age group shows that, with one exception, all three components of the gender overall earnings gap are in favour of men and that the influence of these factors increases significantly between 15 and 44 years of age. The exception is the difference in hourly earnings, which is only in favour of women in the youngest age group, the 15- to 24-year-olds.
Compared to other European countries, the gender gap in Switzerland is small in terms of labour force participation and large in terms of hours worked per month, yet does not differ greatly from the EU average in terms of hourly earnings.
Measuring the Gender Overall Earnings Gap and other indicators of gender income equality - report of the Federal Council in fulfilment of postulate 19.4132 Marti Samira on 25 September 2019 | Publication | Swiss Federal Statistical Office (admin.ch)
Publication available in German and French
