Gender equality in companies is not making any progress

"Although the gender pay gap is getting smaller every year, the pace at which we are progressing is far too slow," said Elisa Aichinger, partner at Deloitte, according to the press release. Data from Statistics Austria show that women in this country earned 18.4 percent less than men (gross and per hour) in 2022, while the EU average difference was 12.7 percent. This makes Austria one of the EU countries with the highest gender pay gap; only in Estonia is the wage difference even greater.

Management levels remain a male domain

Almost half of the companies surveyed by Deloitte are not currently planning to increase the proportion of women in the top management levels. For a fifth of the companies, a lack of qualified women is also a problem. "The management levels in the Austrian economy have always been clearly male-dominated. The survey results do not suggest that this situation will change any time soon," said Aichinger. The consulting firm surveyed a total of 501 company representatives across Austria online from December 2024 to January 2025.

In Aichinger's opinion, comprehensive childcare, the promotion of girls in mathematical and technical subjects and mandatory quotas are necessary to promote gender equality. "Companies, in turn, can achieve a lot with comprehensible processes around career and income development and create a corporate culture that promotes transparency, fairness and a focus on performance," says the Deloitte expert. Those responsible for the study see another lever towards income equality in the EU wage transparency directive, which must be implemented nationally by 2026.