The EU has been doing some interesting research into gender and pay in the labour market across the EU, and the statistics in the report make startling reading in general – and especially from the UK perspective. Euractiv has a summary of the issues here, and the main report is available as a PDF – scroll down to pages 22 and 23 of the report for the startling facts.

The UK – for private sector pay – has a 30% gender pay gap, meaning a 30% difference between men’s and women’s average gross hourly wage as a percentage of men’s average gross hourly wage. The UK beats Slovakia and Cyprus into 2nd and 3rd places. If public sector wages are taken into account, the UK fares slightly better – here Germany’s overall figure is a fraction better than the UK’s, but Britain’s gender pay gap has increased since 1997. The government should be ashamed, and the UK press has not even noticed (at least at the time of writing – see this Google News search).