The Norwegian equality minister said Thursday that she found it "completely unacceptable" that men on average earn 13 more than women as she reacted to a government report stressing that the pay gap in egalitarian Norway persists.
The conclusion of the report, which covers the period 2015-2022, was on par with the figures in the European Union of which Norway isn't a member. According to the European Commission, the gender pay gap in the 27-member EU stood at 12.7 in 2021 and has only changed minimally over the last decade.
The report, which had been commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Equality and was published Thursday, said that since 2015, there has been little change in the wage differences between women and men performing the same work.
"I find it completely unacceptable that women and men who have the same job, the same experience and the same competence, end up with different salaries," Culture and Equality Minister Lubna Jaffery told Norwegian news agency NTB.
The report by the Institute for Social Research, concluded that women who work in the same sector, industry and profession, have the same length of education and experience and similar job size, earn 8 less than men. If women also have the same professional title and employer, they earn 6 less than men.
