Estonia has a very dynamic economy and is a rising IT leader (it is often branded as e-Estonia), but it is also the country with the largest gender pay gap in the EU. According to the latest figures released by Eurostat, the pay gap reached 27 per cent, more than double of that in neighbouring Latvia and Lithuania, and well above the EU average of 16 per cent.

One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the concentration of women in underpaid professions, but also the confidentiality of salaries in the private sector negatively affects women, argues Kadri Aavik, from the Estonian Women’s Studies and Resource Centre (ENUT).

Among the other factors, researchers mention gendered patterns in occupation choices, the incompatibility between demanding careers and family life, the double burden of paid work and household chores and workplace discrimination.

The ILO’s Global Wage Report 2013 claimed that in Estonia changes in the gender pay gap are usually cyclical, increasing in times of growth and decreasing during recessions.

Cycles, bargaining power and ethnicity

There is not a big difference between the employment rates of women and men in the country. Statistically, within the Baltic area, Estonian women are under less pressure to be carers and have a smaller leisure gap.

Yet, childcare still weights disproportionately on women: according to a study commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs, parental leave is still unpopular among fathers, and is coupled with high costs of part-time work for the employers.

This situation pushes mothers of young children out of the labour market for a number of years.

Kadri Aavik also points out the ethnicity factor: ethnic Estonian men as a group earn the most whereas Russian-speaking women earn the least (Russian-speakers constitute about a quarter of the Estonian population).

Many Russian speakers in the Baltic States are concentrated in industrial jobs. Still, Eurostat data shows that the largest gender pay gap was in the finance and insurance sector – 41 per cent.

Sixteen per cent of working women have jobs in the education sector, but even in this women-dominated area they face a pay gap of 25 per cent. In manufacturing, the largest sector for Estonian men’s employment, women’s salaries are lower by a third.

Opaque salaries in private companies also decrease women’s bargaining power.

The EU-funded study Gender pay gap in Estonia issued some policy recommendations, including strengthening employees’ representation through trade unions to help mitigate the pay gap.

Also according to a 2011 OECD report, employment protection in Estonia was amongst the lowest.

Underpaid even when holding power

National statistics showed that Estonian men outnumbered women among legislators, senior officials and managers by 25 per cent, behind other Baltic States.

Aavik maintains that the proportion of women in managerial positions is still rather high (33-42 per cent), but the gap between the salaries of male and female managers is large (19-29 per cent) and tends to increase, reaching up 40 per cent.

Also, it seems that managers have limited awareness of gender inequality issues.

One might think that the prominence of the typically male-dominated IT sector in the Estonian economy can offer a partial explanation for this, but the sector employs just over three per cent of Estonian men and two per cent of women.

For example, Skype, one of the leading global IT companies which started in Estonia, singles out a profile of female quality engineer on their Tallinn job pages, and emphasises the importance of a work environment that is supportive of families.