A groundbreaking report on Women in Design was released today by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), which found that there is a sizable gender pay gap in the EU design business. Only 24% of designers in the EU are women, according to the report, which was released on World Intellectual Property Day. If this disparity were to be closed at the current rate, it would take more than 50 years. In addition, the average salary of female designers is 12.8% lower than that of their male counterparts.

The proportion of female designers varies significantly amongst EU member states, from 17% in the Netherlands to 33% in Latvia. Only 21% of the designs registered by EU-based owners mentioned at least one woman designer, according to a research conducted by the EUIPO using information from Registered Community Design (RCD) filings.

In the EU, the gender gap in design is closing slowly; if it kept up its current pace, parity would not be achieved for another 51 years. While this is the case, several non-EU nations have larger percentages of female designers, with South Korea, China, and the US having approximately 50% or 40% of their design applications come from female designers.

According to the report, women designers make 12.8% less money overall than males designers. While age and working conditions and other variables may play a role in this income discrepancy, there is still an unaccounted-for 8% pay disparity.

Read the full report here.