16.2%: that’s the size of the gender pay gap, or the average difference between women and men’s hourly earnings across the EU, according to the latest figures released today by the European Commission.

‘energy content of hot water’ means the product of the specific heat capacity of water, the average temperature difference between the hot water output and cold water input, and the total mass of the hot water delivered.

The gender pay gap is the average income difference between male and female employees across the entire economy.

4. For each relevant country, the volatility adjustment to the risk-free interest rates referred to in paragraph 3 for the currency of that country shall, before application of the 65 % factor, be increased by the difference between the risk-corrected country spread and twice the risk-corrected currency spread, whenever that difference is positive and the risk-corrected country spread is higher than 100 basis points.

The gender pay gap – the average difference in gross hourly earnings between women and men across the economy as a whole – is persistently high, with considerable differences between countries and sectors.

(8) In order to eliminate differences that might give rise to distortions of competition, in order to facilitate coordination between different Community and national initiatives concerning small and medium-sized enterprises, and for reasons of administrative clarity and legal certainty, the definition of "small and medium-sized enterprises" used in this Regulation should be that laid down in Commission Recommendation 96/280/EC of 3 April 1996 concerning the definition of small and medium-sized enterprises(5). That definition was also used in the Community guidelines on State aid for small and medium-sized enterprises(6).