Structure of earnings statistics, Slovenia, 2015

The difference between men’s and women’s earnings the lowest in real estate activities

According to provisional data of the annual structure of earnings statistics, obtained exclusively from the existing administrative sources, in 2015 average annual gross earnings calculated at the monthly level amounted to EUR 1,649; average gross earnings of men amounted to EUR 1,695 and of women to EUR 1,594 or 94.0% of men’s earnings. Because these are average values, the reason for differences is also in different educational, occupational and age structure.

The median of gross earnings, which divides the population in two halves, was EUR 1,362 (EUR 1,382 for men and EUR 1,334 for women), which means that half of the persons in paid employment had average monthly gross earnings lower than this value.

The difference between men’s and women’s gross earnings was the lowest in real estate activities, by 2.7% or EUR 44 in favour of men. Women had higher gross earnings than men in construction (by 15.0%), in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (by 14.6%) and in transportation and storage (by 11.4%). In all three activities women were in the minority and they mainly did better paid work.

Women were in prominent majority in human health and social work activities (almost 81%) and in education (over 80%). However, in these two activities the difference between the earnings of men and women is higher. In human health and social work activities gross earnings of women were on average 24.3% lower than gross earnings of men, while the median of gross earnings was lower by 10.7%. The reason for this difference was mainly in a different structure as regards the occupation, since approximately 19% of men and only 7.5% of women in this activity were medical doctors. It was similar in education, in which almost 19% of men and only 4% of women were university and professional higher education teachers and assistants.

Highly educated persons in paid employment better paid in the private sector; those with upper secondary education better paid in the public sector

In the public sector almost 53% of persons in paid employment had tertiary education, about 42% had upper secondary education and fewer than 6% had basic education or less. In the private sector 24% of persons in paid employment had tertiary education, 63% had upper secondary education and approximately 13% had basic education or less. This structure affected the average earnings in the public and private sectors, though the differences between the sectors were also in the amounts of average earnings received by persons in paid employment with certain levels of education.

Average gross earnings of persons in paid employment with tertiary education in the private sector in 2015 were 2.9% higher than average gross earnings of equally educated persons in paid employment in the public sector. If we take a closer look at the public sector and divide it into general government and public corporations, persons in paid employment with tertiary education in the private sector had average gross earnings 7.4% higher than equally educated persons in paid employment in the general government sector, but 12% lower than equally educated persons in paid employment in public corporations (these are corporations under control by units of the general government sector).

Persons in paid employment with upper secondary education in the public sector had 9.8% higher average gross earnings than equally educated persons in paid employment in the private sector. In general government average gross earnings of persons in paid employment with upper secondary education were 1.6% higher and in public corporations 20.6% higher than average gross earnings of equally educated persons in paid employment in the private sector.