The impact of COVID-19 on gender income inequality in Europe

Silvia Avram and Daria Popova

This study provides the first comparative analysis of the gendered impacts of the pandemic and the associated policy responses on earnings and disposable incomes in the EU and the UK. The changes in the income distribution due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 were nowcasted using the 2019 data and microsimulation techniques, and decomposed into the effects of the labour market shock, discretionary policy changes, and automatic stabilisers. Employing a gender-sensitive measure of disposable income, this study demonstrates that, in most European countries, the 2020 labour market shock affected the disposable incomes of working age women to a lesser extent than the incomes of men. While men, on average, derived greater benefits from the furlough schemes, the overall impact of all policy changes introduced in 2020 contributed to a (temporary) reduction in the gender income gap among the working-age population.