“Women in Bulgaria receive salaries which are an average of 14% lower than the salaries of men. This places the country within the “golden mean” among the other countries members of the EU,” Ivaylo Dinev from the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) said for the BNR.

The gender pay gap will only be closed next century because of the slow rate at which it is closing – 3% in the past 10 years. The gender pay gap is also leading to a pensions gap which places women at greater risk of impoverishment. CITUB statistics show that 59% of retired women run the risk of finding themselves in a state of poverty, whereas with men this percentage is 43.