Significant regional and gender variances recorded

In 2019, employees in Malta on average earned an annual gross basic salary of €19,594, but once again there was a significant gap between genders as males outpaced females by an amount in excess of €3,000. These amounts exclude bonuses, allowances or overtime and are calculate on the gross wage prior to any deductions for tax and social security contributions.

While men earned on average €20,974 per year, the respective figure for women was of €17,771. The difference, known as gender wage gap, amounted to €3,203. On a positive note, however, the wage gap represented a significant decline of €452 over 2018.

Trends in employees’ renumeration between 2017 and 2019 were the subject of a publication by the National Statistics Office which focus on regional differences across key indicators such as employment, education, transport and the environment.

A deeper analysis of the employees’ gross basic salaries reveals that this has been on the rise from €17,957 in 2017, €18,773 in 2018 to €19,594. Moreover, there are some geographical differences with those living in the western region of the Maltese Islands consistently being the highest earners. This region comprises Dingli, Balzan, Lija, Attard, Żebbuġ, Iklin, Imdina, Imtarfa, Rabat and Siġġiewi. It transpires that the average gross annual salary in these localities was of €21,415 (€22,676 males, €19,647 females).

On the other hand, employees living in the southern harbour region had the lowest gross annual basic salary with €17,530 (€18,349 males, €16,260 females). This region comprises the Three Cities, Fgura, Floriana, Luqa, Żabbar, Kalkara, Marsa, Paola, Santa Luċija, Tarxien, Valletta and Xgħajra. Overall the biggest discrepancies were found between males living in the western region whose average gross annual basic salary was of €22,676 and females in the southern harbour region where the respective figure was of €16,260 – a difference of €6,416.

This data largely mirrors the levels of average household disposable income.  In 2019, the overall average stood at €28,684 in the region of Malta, an increase of 2% over the previous year, while in the region of Gozo and Comino the average household disposable income stood at €26, 034, an increase of 9.7 per cent over 2018.

As in the case of the gross annual salary, the Western region topped the list with €34,399, while the Gozo and Comino district was bottom of the list followed by the southern harbour region.