It will take ‘’only’’ seven years for men and women to be paid the same in the grand duchy, according to a study by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), which has established a trajectory based on the latest available data. The average pay gap in Luxembourg was 8.7% in 2010 and 4.6% in 2018.

Luxembourg is considered one of the three best European examples in this study, ahead of Hungary (2031) and beaten only by Romania (2022).

For the pay gap to be closed before the end of the decade, specific actions will be needed in all countries, says the ETUC. Otherwise, nine countries would have to wait until the end of the century, while in nine other countries the gap would continue to widen. The Germans and Czechs would have to wait until 2121, and the gap is narrowing so slowly in France that it will take more than 1,000 years to reach equality.

The study was published after the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promised to take action within the first 100 days of her mandate. But the timeframe for that has been postponed until 15 December from its original schedule of 4 November.

This article was originally published in French by Paperjam. It has been translated by Delano.