How the gender pay gap differs in countries across Europe

Women across the world have effectively been working for free since 9 November, thanks to the pervasive gender pay gap.

In many countries, the situation is even worse for ethnic minority women: in the US, for example, women as a whole earn 74 cents for every dollar a man earns, but the figure for black women is just 60 cents, and Latina women, 56.

In the EU, the situation is generally better, but not one member country has achieved gender parity in the workplace yet, as this data from Eurostat, shown in a Statista chart, shows:

Despite their progressive gender equality policies, including split parental leave, countries such as Sweden, Finland and Germany still trail in the lower half of the graph.

Germany is in fact one of the worst offenders, with a 21.6 per cent difference in the average gross amount men and women make per hour.

The UK is also one of the countries with the biggest pay gaps, coming in 6th with 19.7 per cent, worse than the EU average difference of 16.4 per cent.

At the top of the chart is Slovenia, with just a 3.2 per cent gap, with Malta (5.1 per cent) and Poland (6.4 per cent) coming in second and third respectively.

More: Here's how you can start to close the gender pay gap from today