Equality at work is enshrined in German and EU law, but far from achieved in practice. This piece brings together the key figures on women, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities that we could verify against official sources — and explains why the topic matters even for a small food producer like Bottega Botanika.
Women in the workforce: global, European, German
Globally, women's labour force participation stood at around 47% in 2023 according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), against 72% for men — a 25 percentage-point gap that widens further in lower-income regions. In Germany, the unadjusted gender pay gap stood at 18% in 2023 and fell to 16% in 2024 — its first drop in four years — according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The adjusted gender pay gap, the portion of the gap that can't be explained by occupation, qualification or career history, has held steady at around 6% for years. For comparison, the EU-wide average was 12.0% in 2023, putting Germany notably above it. In agriculture, women made up around 38% of the global workforce according to the FAO (2019/2023 data) — we cover this in more depth in our article "Women in Agriculture".
Women in craft trades
Traditionally male-dominated trades such as carpentry, metalwork or stonemasonry remain harder for women to enter than other fields — though robust, consistently updated nationwide figures on the exact share of women in technical craft apprenticeships aren't uniformly available and vary considerably by trade and source. What is clear: networks supporting women in the trades focus specifically on mentoring and visibility to help close that gap.
Women's labour force participation, global (2023): 47% (men: 72%) (ILO) Unadjusted gender pay gap, Germany (2024): 16% (Destatis) Adjusted gender pay gap, Germany: ≈ 6% (Destatis) Disability employment gap, EU (2024): ≈ 24 percentage points (Eurostat) Mandatory quota for severely disabled staff (DE): 5% (employers with 20+ staff) (SGB IX)
Legal protection for LGBTQ+ and trans people
Germany's General Equal Treatment Act (Allgemeines Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, AGG) explicitly prohibits workplace discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. In 2024, the Self-Determination Act (Selbstbestimmungsgesetz) also came into force, significantly simplifying legal gender marker changes for trans, intersex and non-binary people. Various percentage figures on how often workplace discrimination actually occurs circulate in media and advocacy materials; they come from different surveys that aren't always methodologically comparable. The most reliable, regularly updated sources are the reports of Germany's Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency and the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) — we deliberately point to these primary sources rather than repeating individual figures we couldn't independently verify.
FAQ
What is Germany's gender pay gap currently? According to Destatis, the unadjusted gender pay gap stood at 16% in 2024, down from 18% in 2020–2023. The adjusted figure is around 6%.
Is discrimination based on sexual orientation illegal in Germany? Yes, the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG) explicitly prohibits workplace discrimination on grounds including sexual identity.
Must all companies employ people with disabilities? Under Social Code Book IX, employers with more than 20 staff must fill at least 5% of their positions with people with a severe disability, or pay a compensatory levy instead.
Why does this article leave out some commonly cited discrimination percentages? Because several figures widely circulated elsewhere couldn't be reliably traced to a current, checkable primary source. We'd rather cite fewer numbers and have all of them be verifiable.
SOURCES
[1] ILO (2023/2024). World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends. ILOSTAT modelled estimates. https://www.ilo.org/media/365356/download [2] Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis) (2024, 2025). Gender Pay Gap press releases. https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2024/01/PD24_027_621.html [3] Eurostat (2025). Employment gaps for women & people with disabilities. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20250527-1 [4] German Federal Ministry of Justice. General Equal Treatment Act (AGG); Social Code Book IX. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/ [5] FAO (2023). The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems. https://openknowledge.fao.org/
