Structure of Earnings Survey

The comparison of white-collar and blue-collar workers also shows that among white-collar works women earned €11.23 and men €16.16. Female blue-collar workers made €7.85 and male blue-collar workers €11.05 per hour. Among marginal part timers, women earned €7.50 and men €8.00 per hour. 

Broken down by occupation, senior officials and managers (€25.73) ranked among the highest paid employees. In comparison, the earnings of professionals (€19.04) amounted to around two thirds of the earnings of senior officials and managers. Office clerks (€12.54) earned around half as much as senior officials and managers, while service workers and shop and market sales workers (€7.99) earned only about one third of the earnings of senior officials and managers.

The results also indicate a positive impact of education on gross hourly earnings. Employees with primary education only (ISCED 0-1) earned €7.90 per hour. Employees with upper secondary and post-secondary education (ISCED 3-4) earned €11.58 and employees with tertiary education (ISCED 5a, 6) €18.97. Therefore, an employee with primary education earned around 32% less than an employee with a secondary education and around 42% less than an employee with post-secondary education. Men's earnings tend to rise more than women's, so that the female-male earnings differential increased with the level of education.

The same applies to the distribution of earnings broken down by age groups. The stronger growth in men's hourly earnings as compared to women's is reflected in the fact that men aged 30 to 39 years earned €13.03, while men between 50 and 59 years earned €14.15. In contrast, the earnings of women aged 30 to 39 years (€10.25) were almost equal to those of women aged 50 to 59 years (€10.30).

Earnings for both men and women rose consistently in relation to the length of service in the enterprise. Earnings of employees with a length of 10 to 14 years were about 36 percent higher as compared to employees with a length of service of less than one year. Employees reaching a length of 20 to 29 years of service earned 66 percent more than employees with less than one year. The growth in women's earnings was stronger than that of men's. Consequently, women with a long duration of service earned nearly as much as men.

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