Vorarlberg has Austria’s widest gender pay gap

Women in Vorarlberg earn 21.7 percent less than men in full-time, year-round jobs, the widest gap among Austria’s provinces, ORF reported. The province’s Equal Pay Day fell on October 13, the earliest in the country.

Austria’s national Equal Pay Day falls on November 5 this year. It marks the point at which men have earned the average annual income women receive over the whole year. Across the country, women effectively work 57 days without pay when their earnings are compared with men’s.

The gender pay gap among full-time workers is 15.5 percent, down from 16.3 percent in 2025. The gap has narrowed steadily in recent years: Equal Pay Day fell on October 11 a decade ago and on November 2 last year.

The calculation, by the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labour, uses average gross annual earnings for employees who worked full time throughout the year. It is based on the latest available wage-tax statistics from Statistics Austria, for 2024. Men’s average annual income was 67,988 euros, 10,542 euros more than women’s.

In Vorarlberg, women in full-time, year-round jobs earn an average of 14,980 euros gross less than men. Their Equal Pay Day was October 13, meaning they effectively work 80 days without pay. Last year it fell on October 10, showing a slight narrowing of the gap.

Vienna has the smallest provincial gap, at 10.6 percent. Its Equal Pay Day is November 23, corresponding to 39 unpaid days. The dates in other provinces are October 23 in Upper Austria, October 26 in Tyrol, October 29 in Salzburg, October 30 in Styria, November 3 in Carinthia, November 4 in Lower Austria and November 7 in Burgenland.

A comparison by the Austrian Association of Cities also put Vorarlberg at the top among provincial capitals. In Bregenz, the capital, Equal Pay Day falls on October 9, the earliest of any provincial capital. The gross income gap there is 16,104 euros.

Factors contributing to the pay gap include differences in career choices and the unequal division of care work, which is linked to women working part time more often and taking longer and more frequent periods of parental leave.

Austria has yet to implement an EU directive on pay transparency, which it was due to do by June 7. Social Affairs Minister Korinna Schumann of the Social Democratic Party submitted a draft shortly before the deadline, but the governing coalition has not reached agreement. The proposal would require companies with at least 100 employees to prepare pay reports. Repeated breaches of the transparency rules could result in administrative fines of up to 60,000 euros.

Schumann said she had sent a draft developed through more than 30 rounds of talks with social partners to the government for coordination, but was still waiting for responses from coalition partners. The social partners did not ultimately agree, with the Austrian Economic Chamber warning that the rules could burden businesses. Schumann said the directive must be implemented and warned that failure to do so could lead to EU infringement proceedings and, ultimately, fines.

NEOS said it wanted to address the pay gap while avoiding additional burdens on businesses. Margreth Falkner, an Austrian People’s Party MP and acting head of the party’s women’s section, said the party supported implementing the directive in principle and that responsibility now rested with the Social Affairs Ministry.