Gender pay gap (i30)
- 31/10/2025
- objective
- assessment assessment
In 2023, the average hourly wage for women in Belgium was 0.7% lower than that for men. To achieve the sustainable development goal by 2030, this figure must be reduced to zero percent. This objective will not be reached by continuing the trend since 2006 (data available in November 2025). The gender pay gap is therefore developing favourably.
Gender pay gap - Belgium - trend assessment
hourly wages, percentage difference
| 2000 | 2006 | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 2022 | 2025 | 2030 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| observations | -- | 9.5 | 10.2 | 6.4 | 3.2 | 0.7 | -- | -- |
| trend and extrapolation (November 2025) | -- | 11.2 | 9.7 | 6.4 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 |
| objective 2030 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Source: Statbel; Eurostat (2025), Gender pay gap in unadjusted form, sdg_05_20, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat, last update of data on 25/02/2025 11:00 (consulted on 25/09/2025)
Gender pay gap in average hourly wages - Belgium and international comparison
percentage difference
| 2006 | 2010 | 2015 | 2017 | 2020 | 2022 | 2022//2006 | 2022//2017 | 2022//2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 9.5 | 10.2 | 6.4 | 5.8 | 3.2 | 0.7 | -15.0 | -34.5 | -20.0 |
| EU27 | -- | 15.8 | 15.5 | 14.6 | 12.7 | 12.2 | -- | -3.5 | -2.1 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | |||||||||
Source: Statbel; Eurostat (2025), Gender pay gap in unadjusted form, sdg_05_20, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat, last update of data on 25/02/2025 11:00 (consulted on 25/09/2025).
Gender pay gap in annual wages / without correction for working time - Belgium
percentage difference
| 1998 | 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | 2014 | 2015 | 2020 | 2022 | 2014//1998 | 2022//2014 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| in annual wages | 27.4 | 26.4 | 25.0 | 22.8 | 20.6 | -- | -- | -- | -1.8 | -- |
| without correction for working time | -- | -- | -- | -- | 24.3 | 24.0 | 21.6 | 19.9 | -- | -2.5 |
| //: Average Growth Rates | ||||||||||
Source: Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (2025), L'écart salarial entre les femmes et les hommes en Belgique - Rapports 2007-2024, https://igvm-iefh.belgium.be/fr/publications/lecart_salarial_entre_les_femmes_et_les_hommes_en_belgique_rapport_2024 (consulted on 29/09/2025).
Definition: the gap between women's and men's average hourly wage is expressed as a percentage of men's average hourly wage. The data are based on the European Structure of Earnings Survey. Statistics Belgium organises this EU-harmonised survey in Belgium and makes the results available, in particular to Eurostat. The data used here come from Eurostat, which publishes detailed and comparable results between EU Member States. Since these data are based on surveys, a margin of uncertainty must be taken into account. The confidence intervals for these data are available on request from Statistics Belgium.
Goal: the gap between the average hourly wage of women and men must be reduced to zero percent.
The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 5.1: "End all forms of discrimination against women and girls everywhere".
Under the European Pillar of Social Rights, Belgium has set the target of 2.9% in wage gap by 2030 (European Commission, 2022; Federal Public Service Social Security, 2023).
UN indicator: the selected indicator does not correspond to any monitoring indicator for the SDGs but is related to target 5.1. Measuring the development in equal pay indicators makes it possible to monitor the reduction in discrimination against women.
Sources
-
European Commission (2022), The European Pillar of Social Rights: state of play on the national target for 2030, https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&furtherNews=yes&newsId=10299 (consulted on 02/10/2025).
- Federal Public Service Social Security (2023), The evolution of the social situation and social protection in Belgium 2021, https://socialsecurity.belgium.be/sites/default/files/content/docs/en/publications/silc/silc-analysis-social-situation-and-protection-belgium-2021-en.pdf (consulted on 02/10/2025).
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