The gender pay gap in the Valencian Community has started to widen again, according to two reports produced by UGT-PV and CC OO-PV and presented today in Valencia. The documents show that the difference between men’s earnings and women’s earnings grew in 2021, the last year with official records, by one tenth compared to 2020, reaching 5,244 euros. That figure places the Valencian gap above the national level for the first time since 2018 (5,213), though the underlying disparity remains even larger when considering factors like age or social status.
Looking at age, the gap between what a woman under 25 earns and what a male peer earns in the Valencian territory rises to 4,540 euros. This is a substantial split when compared with the national average of 2,557 euros for the same age group. Of note, the unions emphasize that this is influenced by the smaller number of observations in this youth group, which makes the figure more volatile. Across other age groups, both Spain and the community show that the longer a person remains in the workforce, the wider the salary gap tends to be for men and women.
In the Valencian case, the gap widens most notably between ages 45 and 54, reaching 6,660 euros. The unions identify interruptions in women’s careers due to child care or care for dependent relatives as a major factor, curbing earnings growth. On average, women earn no more than 23,885 euros when they reach 55 or older, a milestone their male peers reach almost two decades earlier, by age 35.
Gaps by status and job type
Further analysis shows that, when looking at status and economic capacity, the largest gaps appear among those with the lowest earnings—the disparity of 5,367 euros is closely linked to the least-secure sectors and working arrangements where women are more likely to be underrepresented. Conversely, the wealthier percentile shows the gap is driven more by the specific activity and position held by each gender.
In high-paying roles such as executive leadership, the salary difference between men and women exceeds 12,000 euros in Spain. The pattern is similar in sectors with high earnings, like finance and insurance, where men average 52,715 euros annually while women fall short of 41,000 euros.
Another dimension appears when considering disability. Outside of occupation or age, disability acts as a further drag on women’s earnings. On average, women with disabilities earn 20,193 euros, about 13 percent less than women without disabilities who earn 23,255 euros, according to the 2021 Annual Salary Structure Survey, the most recent update by the National Institute of Statistics cited by the ONCE Foundation’s Disability and Labor Market Observatory, Odismet.