The “Education at a Glance 2017” report from the OECD found that 35-44 year-old tertiary-educated women earned on average 90% of what their male peers earned, compared with the OECD average of 76%.
But this occurrence may also be skewed by another phenomenon specific to Luxembourg--teacher salaries. In contrast with most OECD countries, teachers in Luxemburg report higher actual earnings than other full-time tertiary-educated workers.
The report highlighted that Luxembourg primary teachers benefited from the highest starting salary of all teachers in other OECD countries, at $68,348, compared to the OECD average of $29,000.
The wage gap between teachers in Luxembourg and in other countries was even greater at secondary level, with starting salaries of $79,312, more than twice the OECD average of $32,059 for lower secondary and $33,681 for teachers at upper secondary level.
The report said that teachers tended to earn more than adults who had studied at higher education in general in Luxembourg. For example, a primary school teacher earns 10% more than other adults who had a tertiary education. The gap was 26% for secondary school teachers.
In this area, Luxembourg bucks the trend in other OECD countries, where primary school teachers earn 21% less and secondary teachers between 10 and 14% less.
The report said the only other countries to report a similar trend were Finland (for secondary education), Latvia and Portugal.
The teaching profession counts a high proportion of women in Luxembourg: from 2015-16, 96% of primary posts and 51% of secondary were occupied by women.
With that in mind one should not ignore the fact that with 10,471 teachers, the profession makes up 2.4% of the country’s total labour force.
Another factor that may distort the gender pay gap in Luxembourg among tertiary-educated workers is the high prevalence of women who have completed higher education. Statec figures showed that in 2013-14, there were two thirds women in some faculties, such as faculty of letters, humanities, the arts, science and education.