Wage gap in SME's halved in 8 years; Women in leadership still earning a lot less

The gender wage gap in Dutch SMEs halved over the past eight years. In 2026, the adjusted wage gap is 1.2 percent, compared to 2.6 percent in 2018, according to a study by MKB Servicedesk and Van Spaendonck. “The decrease is positive, but masks significant differences within sectors and positions,” the researchers said. Women in leadership positions still earn up to 25 percent less than their male colleagues doing the same work.

The researchers studied over 1.2 million anonymized payslips from 145,000 SMEs. They found that the median salary for men is €4,0004 per month, compared to €3,590 for women - a difference of €414 or 11.5 percent.

A large part of this gap is explained by differences in working hours, positions, and experience. Women aged 30 to 50 work an average of 28.2 hours per week, compared to 37.7 hours for men in the same age group, for example. Male-dominated professions also tend to pay more than female-dominated professions. And women are overrepresented at the bottom of the wage distribution. In 2026, about 14 percent of women in SMEs earn minimum wage, compared to 12 percent of men.

After adjusting for these factors, an unexplained difference of 1.2 percent remains. Last year, the wage gap in SMEs was 1.8 percent.

The researchers noted clear differences in the wage gap by position. Several positions, including software engineers and physiotherapists, no longer have wage gaps. But in other positions, specifically at the top, the gap is significant. The adjusted wage gap for directors in business services is 22.1 percent, and for project managers, 24.6 percent.

The wage gap also increases with age. For employees between the ages of 18 and 30, men earn 0.2 percent more for the same work. For workers above 50, it rises to 3.5 percent. “The Statistics Netherlands Emancipation Monitor shows that this is primarily a generational effect: older generations of women have always worked fewer hours than younger generations,” Jade Karthaus of MKB Servicedesk said.

The researchers also found that collective labor agreements narrow the gender wage gaps. Jobs with a collective agreement have structurally smaller differences than jobs without. “Collective labor agreements establish salary scales and job grades, which leaves less room for arbitrary pay choices,” the researchers said.