The wage gap between men and women in the Netherlands remains unchanged in the private sector but has shrunk slightly in the civil service, according to new research by national statistics office CBS.

The researchers compared salary information from 2018 and 2020 and found women in the private sector continue to earn some €5 an hour less than men in similar jobs with similar ages and experience. This is a pay gap of some 19%.

In the civil service, however, the pay gap has gone down to €2, or 6%, compared with 8% in the previous survey two years ago.

It is a similar picture in management jobs. In the private sector, where women have one in three leadership roles, the pay gap has shrunk by two percentage points since 2008 and remains 6%.

However, in the civil service, where women have two in five management jobs, there is no longer a pay gap.

The CBS also looked at the difference between permanent and temporary jobs. It found the pay gap was bigger between men and women with permanent jobs than short term contracts in both the private and state sector.