World Day for Decent Work

Almost a million employed persons 

The International Trade Union Confederation declared 7 October World Day for Decent Work in 2008. According to survey data, last year there were 998,000 employed persons in Slovenia, of whom 54.6% were men and 45.4% women. The employment rate among the population aged 20–64 was 78.3%, 2.5 percentage points above the EU average. The highest rate was recorded in the Netherlands (83.5%), and the lowest in Italy (67.1%).



More than a tenth of employed persons worked at weekends

The year before last, 14.2% of employed persons in Slovenia also worked at weekends. In the EU as a whole, the share was 22.5%. It was the highest in Greece (41.3%) and the lowest in Lithuania (3.9%). 

Less than a tenth of employed persons usually worked from home

Just under 7% of employed persons in Slovenia usually worked from home last year, which is comparable to the shares before the Covid-19 pandemic. The share was the highest in 2021, when more than a tenth (10.6%) usually worked from home. If we include those who worked from home occasionally, the share is over a fifth (22.9%).

Ireland was the EU Member State with the highest share of employed persons usually working from home in 2024 (20.6%), followed by Finland (19.6%). The share was the lowest in Bulgaria and Romania, where slightly more than 1% of employed persons usually worked from home. Slovenia (6.9%) was below the EU average of 8.9%.



Precarious work

In addition to standard forms of employment, various non-standard forms also appear on the labour market, including precarious employment. Last year, 65,000 residents of Slovenia worked in various precarious forms of work, representing 6.5% of employed persons.

Expected average length of working life close to the EU average

Last year, the expected average length of working life in Slovenia was 37.1 years (38.4 for men and 35.8 for women). Over the past decade, the period has increased by almost three years. In the EU, the expected average length of working life was the longest in the Netherlands (43.8 years), and the shortest in Romania (32.7 years). The EU average was 37.2 years. 

The gender gap in expected average length of working life was the largest in Italy, where men expected to work on average nine years more than women. In Slovenia, the difference was 2.6 years. Women's expected average length of working life was longer than men's only in the Baltic States: Estonia (1.6 years), Lithuania (0.3 years) and Latvia (0.2 years).



5.0% gender pay gap

The gender pay gap is the relative difference between average hourly earnings of employed women and men. In October 2024, it was 5.0% in Slovenia, meaning that women earned on average 95% of men’s average gross hourly earnings. 

In most sections of activity, men's average gross hourly earnings were higher than women's. The gender pay gap was largest in financial and insurance activities (22.5%), while the largest negative gender pay gap – i.e. women's average gross hourly earnings are higher than men's – was recorded in water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities (−11.8%).

At the EU level, the gender pay gap was highest in Latvia (19.0%), while the only negative pay gap was recorded in Luxembourg (−0.9%). The EU average was 12.0%.



At-risk-of-poverty rate for employed persons lower than the EU average

Last year, 5.4% of adult employed persons in Slovenia were living below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. The share was lower than the EU average of 8.2%. The at-risk-of-poverty rates for employed persons were the highest in Luxembourg (13.4%) and Bulgaria (11.8%), and the lowest in Czechia (3.6%) and Finland (2.8%).