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The numbers behind the negotiation.

Pay gap data, negotiation outcomes, and what actually moves the number — for the EU and the US. Sourced, dated, and updated as new data lands.

Last updated: July 2026Methodology & sources ↓

The EU and the US measure the pay gap differently — unadjusted gross hourly earnings versus median weekly earnings for full-time workers. They are reported separately here on purpose, and should not be averaged together.

The gender pay gap in the European Union

European Union · 2024

11.1%

Women in the EU earn 11.1% less per hour than men on average — the unadjusted gap in gross hourly earnings.

Unadjusted means it compares all women to all men, without controlling for role, hours or sector.

Source: Eurostat, Gender pay gap statistics, 2024.

Every member state, ranked

Unadjusted gap in average gross hourly earnings, 2024. A negative number means women earn more per hour than men on average in that country.

  • Luxembourg-0.8%
  • Belgium1.1%
  • Malta3.5%
  • Romania4.5%
  • Italy4.6%
  • Slovenia6.2%
  • Poland7.8%
  • Spain8.7%
  • Ireland9.6%
  • Sweden10.9%
  • EU average11.1%
  • Netherlands12.9%
  • France13.1%
  • Denmark13.4%
  • Finland15.4%
  • Czechia15.6%
  • Hungary15.9%
  • Germany16.3%
  • Austria17.6%
  • Latvia18.3%
  • Estonia18.8%

Source: Eurostat, 2024.

Down from 16.2% in 2011 to 11.1% in 2024 — narrowing, but slowly.

Roughly a third of a percentage point a year. At that pace, parity on the unadjusted measure is decades away — which is why individual negotiations still carry so much of the weight.

You may now have the legal right to ask what colleagues earn

The EU Pay Transparency Directive required all member states to transpose it into national law by 7 June 2026. If you're negotiating in the EU now, you may have a new legal right to ask what colleagues in similar roles earn.

How to negotiate salary under the EU Pay Transparency Directive →

Gaps run far wider in finance and insurance (14–36% depending on country) than in the public sector — your industry matters more than the national average.

The gender pay gap in the United States

United States · 2026

82¢

Women in the US earn about 82 cents for every dollar men earn, among full-time workers.

That gap narrows to 99 cents when comparing the same job title and qualifications.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics / USAFacts, Usual weekly earnings of wage and salary workers, 2026.

Both numbers matter, and they answer different questions: the uncontrolled 82 cents measures the overall opportunity gap — who gets hired into which roles, who gets promoted, who works reduced hours — while the controlled 99 cents measures what's left when a woman and a man are doing the same job with the same credentials.

Controlled figure: Payscale, Gender Pay Gap Report, 2026.

United States · state range · 2025

93 cents

Smallest gap — Vermont

76 cents

Widest gap — Oklahoma

These averages compare all women to all men. Measured against white men, the gap is meaningfully wider for Black and Hispanic women — occupational segregation, earlier career interruptions and lower starting offers compound on top of the gap women face overall, so a single blended figure understates what those groups are actually negotiating against.

Equal Pay Day 2026 fell on 26 March

That's the date US women effectively caught up to what men earned the previous year — nearly three additional months of work for the same annual pay.

Do women actually negotiate less?

This is the piece of advice most in need of updating. The research it rests on is twenty years old, and the behaviour it described has changed.

  1. The old narrative

    “Women don't ask”

    For two decades, Babcock and Laschever's finding that women initiate negotiations far less often than men was the accepted explanation for the pay gap. It shaped a generation of advice: lean in, speak up, just ask. The problem is that the underlying behaviour has changed, and the advice hasn't caught up.

    Source: Academy of Management Discoveries, 2023–24.

  2. The newer research

    Women now negotiate more often than men — and still earn less

    A study of MBA alumni by Kray, Kennedy and Lee found women negotiated their first job offer more often than men (54% versus 44%), and negotiated promotions and compensation in role more often too (64% versus 59%). Ten years out, those same women earned 22% less than their male peers.

    Source: Academy of Management Discoveries, 2023–24.

  3. The real story

    When women ask, they're told no more often

    Pew Research found that among workers who asked for higher pay, 38% of women were given only the original offer, compared with 31% of men. The gap isn't in who opens the conversation. It's in what happens after.

    Source: Pew Research Center, 2023.

Asking was never really the problem. How you ask — and what you say when they push back — is what moves the outcome. That's the whole reason scripts exist.

If asking isn't the problem, wording is

The script builder writes your opening line, your justification, and an answer for whatever they come back with — built around your role, your seniority and your number.

Why it compounds

A pay gap isn't a one-year event. Every future raise, bonus and pension contribution is calculated as a percentage of a base that was set in a single conversation, so a number you accept once follows you for the rest of your career. A single negotiated raise compounds every year after.

See what one conversation could be worth over your career →

The career & promotion gap

The promotion gap opens earlier than most people assume — at the very first step into management, not at the executive level.

The broken rung · 2025

93 / 100

For every 100 men promoted to manager, only 93 women are promoted — the “broken rung” at the first step into management.

The gap widens further for women of colour: breakdowns of the same underlying study report figures that can fall below roughly 75 promoted per 100 men, and exact sub-group numbers vary depending on how they are reported.

Source: McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org, Women in the Workplace 2025, 2025.

Executive representation · 2025

29%

Women hold just 29% of C-suite roles — a figure that hasn't moved since 2024.

Source: McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org, Women in the Workplace 2025, 2025.

Sponsorship · entry level · 2025

31% vs 45%

Only 31% of entry-level women have a workplace sponsor, compared with 45% of men at the same level.

One of the likeliest drivers of the broken rung above: sponsorship is what puts a name forward in the room where promotions are decided.

Source: McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org, Women in the Workplace 2025, 2025.

The motherhood penalty

United States · 2024 data

35%

Full-time working mothers earned 35% less than full-time working fathers in 2024 — up from 31–32% the two years prior.

At the current trajectory, that gap could mean roughly $600,000 less in lifetime earnings for a full-time working mother compared with a father, over a 30-year career.

Source: Bankrate analysis of US Census Bureau CPS data, Working mothers and the pay gap, 2025.

United Kingdom · 2026 briefing

42%

UK mothers' earnings fall 42% within five years of their first child — a loss of roughly £65,600 by that point.

There is no equivalent penalty for fathers: full-time working fathers with children under 18 earn more than their childless male peers, not less. That specific comparison is a US figure (Bankrate/Census analysis) and should be cited as US data, not as a UK or EU finding.

Source: ONS analysis via Working Families / APPG, Motherhood pay penalty briefing, 2026.

This is exactly why negotiating a return from a career break, or negotiating before a leave rather than only after, changes the trajectory rather than just the moment.

Pay transparency law adoption

United States · snapshot, mid-2026

17 states + D.C.

At least 17 US states plus Washington, D.C. now have some form of statewide pay transparency law.

This number changes frequently as more states pass legislation — always confirm the current count before citing a precise figure in press.

Source: Multiple legal-tracking sources, mid-2026.

European Union · deadline

7 June 2026

Every EU member state was required to transpose the Pay Transparency Directive into national law by 7 June 2026.

Implementation details still vary by country: reporting thresholds, enforcement bodies and the exact scope of the right to pay information differ between member states.

Source: European Council, EU Pay Transparency Directive (EU) 2023/970, 2023.

The cost of not negotiating

Lifetime cost

$1M–$1.5M

Failing to negotiate a starting salary can cost between $1 million and $1.5 million in lifetime earnings.

Source: Linda Babcock, Carnegie Mellon University, Women Don't Ask — research on negotiation and lifetime earnings, —.

This is why a single conversation is worth more than it feels like in the moment — small differences in starting salary compound every year afterward through percentage-based raises.

See what one negotiated raise could be worth over your own career →

Frequently asked questions

What is the gender pay gap in the EU right now?
Women in the EU earn 11.1% less per hour than men on average. That is the unadjusted gap in gross hourly earnings published by Eurostat, so it reflects the whole labour market, not two people doing the same job.
What is the gender pay gap in the United States?
Among full-time workers, women earn about 82 cents for every dollar men earn, based on median weekly earnings reported by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
What is the "broken rung"?
For every 100 men promoted into their first management role, only 93 women are promoted. Because the gap appears at the first step, fewer women are ever in the pool for senior roles later — it compounds long before the C-suite.
How big is the motherhood penalty?
Full-time working mothers earned 35% less than full-time working fathers in 2024, up from 31–32% in the two previous years. The penalty grows with each child and does not appear for fathers.
How much does not negotiating cost over a career?
Research by Linda Babcock at Carnegie Mellon puts the lifetime cost of not negotiating a starting salary at between $1 million and $1.5 million. Starting salary sets the base every future percentage raise is calculated from, so the gap compounds every year.
Does asking for more actually work?
Yes — most employers expect a counter and build room into the first offer. The people who ask are far more likely to get a higher number than the people who accept immediately, and a well-framed counter rarely costs the offer.
Where does this data come from?
Every figure on this page is linked to a named public source: Eurostat, the OECD, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, national statistics offices, McKinsey and LeanIn's Women in the Workplace, and peer-reviewed negotiation research. Nothing here is modelled or estimated by us.
Can I reuse these charts and numbers?
Yes. The data is published under a CC BY 4.0 licence, the charts can be downloaded as branded images from the journalist toolkit below, and we ask only that you credit Negotiaelle and link back to this page.

For journalists

Every stat on this page is sourced and dated below. If you're writing about pay equity or salary negotiation and want a quote, a custom data cut, or a chart image, get in touch — we usually respond within one working day.

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Negotiaelle builds salary-negotiation tools for women in Europe and the US: a script builder, a spoken rehearsal room and a counter-offer calculator, published in nine languages. The statistics hub is maintained as a public reference and updated as new official data lands.

Contact the Negotiaelle team →

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EU pay gap by country

<a href="https://negotiaelle.com/statistics"><img src="https://negotiaelle.com/charts/eu.svg?lang=en" alt="EU pay gap by country" width="880" loading="lazy" /></a>
<p><small>Chart: Negotiaelle — <a href="https://negotiaelle.com/statistics">Salary Negotiation & Gender Pay Gap Statistics (EU & US)</a></small></p>

Update log

  • July 2026

    Added the career & promotion gap, motherhood penalty, pay transparency law adoption and cost-of-not-negotiating sections, plus the journalist toolkit with downloadable chart images.

  • June 2026

    Published the hub with EU and US pay gap data, the full member-state ranking, and the negotiation research timeline.

Methodology & sources

EU and US figures are reported separately because they are not measured the same way. Eurostat publishes an unadjusted gap in average gross hourly earnings across all employees; the US Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes median usual weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary workers. Averaging the two produces a number that means nothing. Where a controlled figure is quoted, it is labelled as such.

These figures are re-checked periodically and revised whenever the underlying sources publish new data. Last updated: July 2026.