Gross hourly earnings vary considerably across occupations. As the detailed earnings data reveals managers are the best-paid occupations in all EU member states, while elementary occupations are the worst paid.
Based on detailed earnings data for 2018, managers were the best-paid occupation in all EU Member States. At EU level, with mean gross hourly earnings of €28.6, managers were ahead of professionals (€21.4), followed by technicians (€17.8), reads the recent data of EuroStat.
At the opposite end of the scale, elementary occupations (such as cleaners and helpers, laborers, food preparation assistants, street and related sales and service workers) were the worst paid occupation in all EU Member States, with the exception of Denmark, where service and sales workers earned less. At EU level, elementary occupations (€9.7/hour) were followed by service and sales workers (€11.2), plant and machine operators and assemblers (€11.5).
This article analyses selected results of the four-yearly Structure of earnings survey (SES), which provides comparable in-depth information on the level of earnings and the individual characteristics of employees.
All in all, mean gross hourly earnings of the best paid occupation in the EU were around three times higher than those of the least well paid occupation. More precisely, the gross hourly earnings of a manager in the EU (€28.6) were almost three times as high as of an elementary worker (€9.7).
Across the EU Member States, this ratio was highest in Cyprus, where managers (€31.7/hour) were paid on average five times as much as elementary workers (€6.3/hour). In contrast, the ratio was lowest in Denmark, where managers (€50.9) were paid around twice as much as service and sales workers (€22.2).
