Romania has one of the smallest gender pay gaps in the European Union (EU), at 3.6% compared with the EU average of around 12%, but this does not mean there is no underlying problem related to the mechanisms behind workforce participation and the real cost of labour, according to the National Confederation for Female Entrepreneurship (CONAF).

'A small gap does not mean a small problem. It means a problem that is not yet visible. The figure of 3.6% does not tell us that women are paid fairly - it merely tells us that we have not looked closely enough. The directive gave us the magnifying glass. We missed the deadline to use it,' said CONAF head Cristina Chiriac in a press release sent to AGERPRES on Monday.

According to the organisation, the European deadline expired on June 7 for transposing legislation that would make it possible to measure the adjusted gender pay gap in depth and conduct pay audits.

'A small number makes you believe there is no problem. That is why nobody discussed missing the deadline: 3.6% appears almost resolved. But 3.6% is a net, aggregated average. It tells us nothing about the underlying mechanism.

'Nobel Prize-winning research by Claudia Goldin shows that most of the pay gap does not emerge between poorly paid and highly paid occupations. It emerges within the same company, for the same work, and widens sharply 12 to 24 months after the birth of a first child.

'An average of 3.6% may conceal precisely this mechanism because it combines interrupted career paths with uninterrupted ones. Directive (EU) 2023/970 requires exactly the tool that makes this divergence visible: measurement of the adjusted pay gap and remuneration audits.

'This is not merely a matter of compliance with Brussels. It is a measuring instrument that reveals what a single aggregated percentage cannot show. Romania postponed precisely the diagnostic tool, reassured by a figure that appears comforting.

'This is the invisible infrastructure of an economy: the things you do not account for because you think you do not need to. You only see them once you measure them. If you refuse to measure them, they disappear - not from reality, but from decision-making,' the press release said.

According to CONAF, the mechanisms behind workforce participation and the real cost of labour that the Romanian economy does not adequately account for are examined in the report 'The Economic Status of Romanian Women in 2026', which is currently being finalised.

CONAF was established in response to the need to create a modern, sustainable and equitable entrepreneurial culture, not only for women entrepreneurs but for the entire business environment. The organisation comprises 33 branches, three federations, 16 employers' associations, 55 associations and 15,000 companies employing more than 245,000 people.

Among CONAF's projects are Youth Pact, Marathon for Entrepreneurial Education, the Entrepreneur by Vocation Forum, the 24 Trends for 2024 Forum, SupraTAX, DigitalUP, the Labour Pact (in partnership with FPPG), the Entrepreneurial Education Pact, the Romanian Venture Forum series of open dialogues, and Romanian Tourism: Between Deadlock and Opportunity. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Badea; EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)