Gender pay gap is narrowing

Central Statistical Bureau (CSB) data indicate a steady narrowing of the unadjusted gender pay gap¹ over the past four years, with the latest provisional estimate showing a decline to 13.9 % in 2024.  Compared to 2023, the gap has reduced by 2.5 percentage points.

The gap in earnings of males and females is affected by various social and economic factors – the number of men and women in a specific economic activity, their occupation and work duties, educational attainment, age, service increment, number of hours worked, as well as labour supply and demand trends and structural changes in the labour market. The indicator is calculated without excluding the effect of these factors, which might explain the reasons for the gap.

In 2024, the smallest unadjusted gender pay gap was recorded in public administration (3.0 %), followed by real estate activities (4.0 %), administrative and support service activities (5.3 %), as well as transportation and storage (5.6 %). However, the largest gap was recorded in arts, entertainment, and recreation (33.1 %), followed by human health and social work activities (30.7 %), financial and insurance activities (29.5 %), as well as information and communication (24.8 %).

In terms of sectoral breakdown, unadjusted gender pay gap in private sector was 5.5 percentage points larger than in public (16.1 % and 10.6 %, respectively). Women in full-time jobs earned 19.9 % less than men, while among those in part-time jobs the gap was about half as large – 11.2 %.

As regards the age, the smallest gender gap in hourly earnings – 9.1 % – was recorded in the age group under 25, while the largest in the age group 35–44, where women on average earned 16.8 % less per hour than men.  

Unadjusted gender pay gap by age group

(per cent)

Reference metadata about statistics for hourly and monthly gender pay gap are available in the official statistics portal metadata sections Gender pay gap, hourly earnings and Gender pay gap, monthly gross.

Methodological  information

¹ European Union (EU) methodology sets that unadjusted gender pay gap is calculated from the Structure of Earnings Survey results. The survey is conducted once every four years, with the last one carried out in 2022. In years when the survey is not conducted, the estimate is based on the State Revenue Service data and statistical report about the first quarter. The time series between the last two surveys are recalculated when the information from the latest EU Structure of Earnings Survey becomes available.

In February 2025, the following changes were made: the time series for 2019–2021 were recalculated, the data for 2022 were replaced with the survey indicators, and the 2023 indicators were recalculated based on the new base year (2022).

Unadjusted gender pay gap is one of the EU sustainable development indicators calculated based on the Eurostat methodology and used for international comparisons. The indicator is used to monitor progress towards the gender equality.

CSB also publishes a monthly gender pay gap that is an indicator used for annual comparisons of earnings received by both genders in Latvia. This indicator differs from the unadjusted gender pay gap in terms of both calculation methodology and target population.

² All activities, except for agriculture, forestry, fishing and public administration, based on the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE Rev. 2).

Media requests:
Public Relations Section
E-mail: media@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +371 27880666

More information on data:
Lija Luste
Business Statistics Methodology Section
E-mail: Lija.Luste@csp.gov.lv
Phone: +371 67366917