In defiance of all spin about Women's Day and the best time ever, the gender pay gap in Malta has actually increased from 7.7% in 2011 to 11% in 2016, Eurostat said yesterday.

In 2011, the gender pay gap in Malta was amongst the lowest in the EU. In 2016, it was not amongst the highest in the EU. In both cases, the pay gap in Malta was beneath the EU average.

The 3.3% increase was amongst the highest in the EU, surpassed only by Portugal and Slovenia.

In 2016, the unadjusted gender pay gap stood at just over 16% in the European Union. In other words, women earned on average 84 cents for every euro a man makes per hour. Across Member States, the gender pay gap in 2016 ranged from just over 5% in Romania and Italy, to more than 25% in Estonia, followed by the Czech Republic and Germany (both almost 22%).

The gender pay gap in the EU Member States, in 2016, was less than 10% in Romania (5.2%), Italy (5.3%), Luxembourg (5.5%), Belgium (6.1%), Poland (7.2%), Slovenia (7.8%) and Croatia (8.7%, data for 2014). Conversely, the gender pay gap was over 20% in Estonia (25.3%), the Czech Republic (21.8%), Germany (21.5%), the United Kingdom (21.0%) and Austria (20.1%).

Compared with 2011, the gender pay gap has dropped in most of the EU Member States. The most noticeable decreases between 2011 and 2016 were recorded in Romania (-4.4 percentage points - pp), Hungary (-4.0 pp) Spain and Austria (both -3.4 pp), Belgium (-3.3 pp) and the Netherlands (-3.0 pp). In contrast, the gender pay gap has risen between 2011 and 2016 in ten Member States, with the most significant increases being observed in Portugal (+4.6 pp) and Slovenia (+4.5 pp). At EU level, the gender pay gap has decreased slightly, by 0.6 pp, from 16.8% in 2011 to 16.2% in 2016.