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Austria Now News – Vienna
Equal Pay Day falls on 5 November in Austria this year. It marks the day on which men have, on average, already earned what women earn over the entire year. Women therefore effectively work 57 days unpaid until the end of the year.
The gap is narrowing slowly
The gender pay gap in full-time jobs stands at 15.5 per cent, compared with 16.3 per cent last year. Ten years ago, the day fell on 11 October, and last year on 2 November.
The Upper Austrian Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer Oberösterreich) calculates the date based on the average gross annual income of year-round full-time employees, according to the latest wage tax statistics from Statistik Austria for 2024. According to these figures, men’s average annual income was 67,988 euros, 10,542 euros more than that of women.
Vienna best, Vorarlberg worst
Vorarlberg has the largest gap at 21.7 per cent, which is why the day fell there on 13 October, while Vienna has the smallest gap at 10.6 per cent, with the day falling on 23 November. In between are Upper Austria on 23 October, Tyrol on 26 October, Salzburg on 29 October, Styria on 30 October, Carinthia on 3 November, Lower Austria on 4 November and Burgenland on 7 November.
Reasons cited for the gap include the different occupations chosen by men and women and the unequal distribution of care work, which leads to a higher share of part-time work and longer parental leave among women.
EU directive not yet implemented
Austria was required to implement the EU Pay Transparency Directive by 7 June. Social Affairs Minister Korinna Schumann (SPÖ) presented a draft obliging companies with 100 or more employees to produce income reports, with administrative fines of up to 60,000 euros for repeated violations, but the governing coalition has not yet agreed on it. Schumann said she was waiting for feedback from the two coalition partners, while the Austrian Economic Chamber (Wirtschaftskammer) has repeatedly warned of additional burdens on companies. Failure to implement it could lead to EU infringement proceedings.
Vienna’s Deputy Mayor Barbara Novak (SPÖ) called on the coalition partners ÖVP and NEOS to stick to the government programme, stressing that the 10.6 per cent in Vienna is still too high.
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Sources
oe24 – Equal Pay Day deckt heuer Lohnlücke von 15,5 % auf – 01.11.2026 – https://www.oe24.at/a/equal-pay-day-deckt-heuer-lohnluecke-von-15-5-auf-900129191
oe24 – Equal Pay Day: Novak knöpft sich Koalition vor – 01.11.2026 – https://www.oe24.at/a/equal-pay-day-novak-knoepft-sich-koalition-vor-900129188
