Gender Gaps Persist Despite Growth in Female Employment: ILO

According to ILO Labour Overview 2024, women’s employment and labor participation rates are 22 percentage points lower than men’s. The report highlights that the high concentration of women in informal and unpaid work continues to limit their economic opportunities, reinforcing the urgent need for policies that promote gender equity in the workforce.

“We want to address a central and structural issue in our labor markets: gender gaps remain persistent,” says Gerson Martínez, Regional Specialist in Labour Economics, ILO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean. While women’s employment has shown growth, with a 2.6% increase compared to 2019, disparities remain, as women’s employment and labor participation rates are still 22 percentage points lower than those of men. Additionally, the female unemployment rate is 2.2 percentage points higher than that of men. 

“Achieving gender pay equity is not just a social responsibility, but a strategic business decision that offers short- and long-term benefits. Organizations with transparent pay policies are more attractive to top-tier talent, particularly women,” explains Daniela García, Vice President of People, Performance and Culture, Element Fleet Management, for MBN. 

Companies with greater gender equity report higher levels of employee satisfaction, reduced turnover, and improved productivity, explains García. Similarly, a report by Entrepreneur highlighted that 73% of companies implementing gender equality practices saw increased profitability and productivity. Pay equity reduces turnover by fostering trust and a sense of fairness among employees. For example, 91% of employees who perceive their organization as transparent about pay decisions trust that they are compensated equally. In contrast, only 49% of employees in organizations lacking pay transparency share this trust, adds García. According to a survey by Jennings Executive Search, 80% of jobseekers are more likely to join a company that practices salary transparency.

Informality remains a major issue for women in Latin America's labor market, reports ILO. In half of the countries analyzed, the informality rate is still higher than the regional average, which stood at 47.6% in 2024. In most countries, informality rates among women are higher than those of men. Additionally, seven out of 10 women make up the largest share of young people neither studying nor working for pay, highlighting the challenges women face in accessing stable, formal employment, explains Martínez.

According to a paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the factors that contribute to persistent gender gaps in the workforce include the difficulty in finding employment, the dominance of involuntary part-time work, informal jobs, and the prevalence of low-return employment. Women in LATAM continue to face disadvantages in math performance, and there is a segregation by field of study, with women having a low probability of completing a degree in a STEM discipline, which has a higher return rate than health and education disciplines, reports NBER.