Among 40 countries surveyed, Croatia ranked 6th, with a gender pay gap of 7.40%. Slovenia topped the ranking with the smallest gender pay gap of 3.20%, while Bosnia and Herzegovina, where women earn 46% less than their male counterparts, finished at the bottom.
Using the average earnings of women in each country (as a percentage of men's earnings), Expert Market calculated the date at which women effectively start working for free.
Slovenian women placed best; they start working for free on December 18. They are followed by Maltese women (December 11) and Polish women (December 7). Malta has a gender pay gap of 5.10% and Poland of 6.40%.
Croatian women work for free from December 3 until the end of the year.
Bosnian women, who earn nearly half as much as men, start working for free on July 16. They are preceded by Ukrainian women, who earn 41% less than men and start working for free on August 2, and Georgian women, who earn 34.8% less than men and start working for free on September 25.
The bottom ten countries with a large disparity in pay between men and women include rich Western countries such as the United Kingdom (19.70%), Germany (21.60%) and Austria (23%).
Although perceived as countries with the highest level of gender equality, Sweden has a gender pay gap of 15.20%, Denmark of 15.80% and Finland of 18.70%.