Monaco makes progress on gender pay equality

Monaco Statistics (IMSEE) has published encouraging data showing continued progress towards closing the gender pay gap, placing the Principality among Europe’s leading countries in gender equality.

Five years after the first study commissioned by the Committee for the Promotion and Protection of Women’s Rights, IMSEE’s new findings show positive developments. In the public sector, women’s average basic salary based on the index system* now exceeds that of men by 2.4%, compared with just 0.7% in 2019. The share of women in senior positions has also risen, from 47.0% to 49.1% over the same period.

• *The basic pay system used in Monaco’s civil service. Each public servant is assigned an index corresponding to their grade and level, which is then multiplied by the value of the index point (set by the state) to calculate the annual gross salary.

Disparities narrowing in the private sector

While differences remain in the private sector, they have narrowed significantly. The average hourly wage gap between men and women now stands at 16.4%, a drop of more than four percentage points since 2019. However, the analysis of median salaries shows a much more balanced picture. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) methodology, the median gap is just 0.1% — equivalent to €1.90 more per month for men.

For comparison, the median pay gap was 6.2% in France and 11.5% across OECD countries in 2023. The results place Monaco among Europe’s top performers for pay equality.

A long-term trend

Over the past decade, Monaco has seen steady progress: since 2012, the monthly pay gap has fallen by ten percentage points, while the hourly gap has decreased by nearly six.

The second edition of the study, based on data from the Caisses Sociales de Monaco (Monaco Social Funds) and the Human Resources and Training Department, will serve as a benchmark for future public policies on gender equality in the workplace.