The gender pay gap in the Balearic Islands has almost halved in a year, standing at 7.4% according to official 2022 data, making it the third lowest in Spain after the Canary Islands (4.3%) and Ceuta and Melilla (5.8%). However, UGT Illes Balears warns that this decrease does not reflect a real improvement in gender equality but is linked to structural factors within the Balearic labour market, which is heavily focused on the service sector.

The spokesperson for the UGT Illes Balears Board, Xisca Garí Perelló, highlighted the “significant” drop in the pay gap, which fell from 13.7% in 2021 to 7.4% in 2022, during the presentation of the UGT 2025 Pay Equality Report. Garí attributed this decrease to the positive impact of the Labour Reform, which has particularly benefited women due to their higher representation in temporary and part-time jobs. She also noted that the increase in the average female salary was greater than that of men in 2022: women saw their annual salary rise by €3,710 to reach €26,054, while men experienced an increase of €2,257, reaching €28,155.

However, Garí stressed that the pay gap in the Balearic Islands is “just the tip of the iceberg of structural inequalities that affect women throughout their working lives and into retirement, condemning them to less social protection and higher poverty rates.”

Traditional roles, a key cause of the gender pay gap in the Balearic Islands

The report presented by UGT also highlights that the reduction in the gap is partly due to the successive increases in the minimum wage since 2019. However, it warns that inequality persists in areas such as salary bonuses and overtime. In the Balearic Islands, the gap in bonuses stands at 11.4%, while the gap for overtime skyrockets to 33.2%.

Garí emphasised that these inequalities are rooted in gender roles and the burden of family care, which predominantly falls on women, limiting their opportunities for promotion and their availability for work. “Women continue to sacrifice professional advancement to take on family responsibilities, and this reality still impacts their job prospects and salaries,” Garí lamented.

Union demands

UGT calls for the minimum wage to continue increasing and for it to be calculated based on the base salary to avoid wage stagnation among the most vulnerable groups, especially women. The union also demands stricter measures to ensure pay equality, such as labour inspections and dedicated funds to enforce regulations.

UGT further proposes the creation of a social dialogue table in the Balearic Islands to monitor the application of both regional and national equality legislation, as well as educational plans that promote co-education in both public and private schools.