Specially trained inspectors who will penalize unequal pay for women and men for the same work will begin visiting Czech companies. Ombudsman Anna Šabatová urged the inspector general of labor about this. "Unequal pay is unworthy and the state should do more to prevent it," she wrote. Wage differences between Czech men and women are the third highest in the European Union. Czech women earn an average of 22 percent less than their male colleagues. The only inferior conditions are found in Germany and Austria, and EU member states average a 16.4 percent difference in pay between men and women.