Women Earn Half of Men’s Labour Income Worldwide: ILO

Women around the world collectively earn just over half the total labour income earned by men, underscoring persistent and systemic gender inequalities in the world of work, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

The organization’s 2025 global analysis shows that the labour income gender ratio — a measure that captures the share of total labour income earned by women relative to men — stands at 0.52. This means that women collectively earn 52 cents for every dollar earned by men. While this represents a modest improvement from 47 cents in 2004, the ILO warns that progress has been slow, uneven, and regionally fragmented.

The Americas and Asia-Pacific have made the greatest advances over the past two decades, with the ratio climbing to 65 cents and 45 cents, respectively. In contrast, Africa and the Arab States lag far behind, with women earning just 35 cents and 14 cents on the dollar. The organization attributes these disparities to differences in employment participation, working hours, occupational segregation, and the unequal burden of unpaid care work.

“Labour income data allow us to see the full scale of inequality — not only pay differences among employees, but also the impact of employment rates, unpaid work and time spent in the labour market,” notes the ILO.

Traditional measures of the gender pay gap often focus solely on employee earnings. The ILO’s approach, however, includes the income of both employees and the self-employed, as well as individuals who are not employed during the year. This comprehensive view captures the combined effects of unequal access to employment and disparities in earnings among those who work.

In 2025, there were 1.4 billion employed women globally compared with 2.1 billion employed men — roughly three men for every two women. Among those employed, female workers earned 78 cents for every dollar earned by male workers on an annual basis.

The analysis identifies two key forces driving the gender labour income gap: lower female participation in the workforce, and lower average annual earnings among employed women. Both factors reinforce each other, resulting in slower income growth for women across most economies.

Differences in working time are central to understanding the income divide. In 2025, women worked six hours and 25 minutes less per week in paid employment than men — a gap that has remained largely unchanged since 2005. Yet when unpaid work is added, women consistently work longer total hours than men.

Unpaid care and domestic work remain one of the largest invisible contributors to the gender gap. Globally, women perform three times more unpaid care work than men. This includes childcare, eldercare, household management, and community support — activities that sustain economies but remain unrecognized in GDP and labour metrics.

The ILO emphasizes that this imbalance produces both income poverty and time poverty for women. Without redistributing unpaid care responsibilities through public policy, social protection, and investment in care infrastructure, gender parity in income will remain out of reach.

Even when women access formal employment, their career trajectories differ significantly. In 2023, women held 30% of managerial positions globally, up slightly from 26.5% two decades ago. “Fewer than 30% of entry-level and managerial roles in tech are held by women, and less than one in five leadership positions are occupied by women,” says Ursula Quijano, Mexico Country Lead, Laboratoria. While some low-income countries have made notable progress — increasing female managerial representation from 24.7% to 36.5% — others, especially in lower-middle-income economies, have seen declines.

Women also remain overrepresented in undervalued sectors such as education, healthcare, social work, and domestic service, where pay is lower and working conditions are often more precarious. Meanwhile, men dominate in higher-paying, technical, and industrial occupations such as construction, logistics, and machinery operations.

Gender segregation across occupations not only limits women’s earnings but also restricts productivity and innovation. “While full parity across all professions is unrealistic, eliminating stereotypes that constrain career choices is essential,” says the ILO. The organization stresses the importance of gender-sensitive education, career guidance and equitable hiring practices to expand women’s access to better-paid and more stable employment.

Informality continues to shape labour outcomes, particularly in developing economies. Globally, 59% of men and 56% of women work in informal employment. However, this pattern reverses in low- and lower-middle-income countries, where women face higher informality rates — 4.7 and 4.6 percentage points higher than men, respectively. “The gender gap arises from factors both inside and outside the labor market. Historically, women have shouldered a disproportionate percentage of unpaid labor at home, including childcare, eldercare, and household management, averaging four more hours per day than men,” says Quijano. 

Informal employment often lacks social protection, collective bargaining rights, and income stability, reinforcing structural inequality. Women in informal work also face barriers to transitioning into formal sectors, due in part to limited access to credit, childcare, and legal protections.

Complementary research from the OECD and the Center for Distributive, Labor and Social Studies (CEDLAS) reveals similar patterns across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Despite gains in education and literacy, women remain underrepresented in STEM fields and concentrated in low-paying care sectors.

CEDLAS data shows that fewer than one in five women aged 30–40 in ten Latin American countries work in STEM occupations, while men’s participation is two to three times higher. The countries with the widest gaps in STEM career expectations among teenagers — Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Colombia — also show the largest disparities in adult employment.

OECD research underscores that these inequalities begin early. Only 14% of girls in LAC expect to work in STEM, compared to 26% of boys. This expectation gap persists despite equal or higher academic performance by girls in reading and similar performance in science. The OECD links this to cultural norms, gender bias in education, and limited exposure to real-world career experiences.

According to the organization, improving career guidance, mentorship, and employer engagement in schools is key to addressing these misalignments. Studies show that adolescents who participate in at least four career-linked activities — such as internships, job shadowing or volunteering — are significantly more likely to find stable employment and earn higher wages as adults.

The ILO concludes that achieving true gender equality in labour income will require systemic reforms that go beyond pay adjustments. Key recommendations include:

• Expanding access to formal employment through inclusive growth and targeted labor policies.
   

• Recognizing and redistributing unpaid care work via investments in public childcare, parental leave and eldercare infrastructure.
   

• Promoting women’s leadership and entrepreneurship, especially in emerging industries.
   

• Reducing occupational segregation by addressing stereotypes and barriers in education and vocational training.
   

• Strengthening social protection systems to reach informal and vulnerable workers.
   

The organization also points to the economic benefits of closing the gap. Prior ILO estimates suggest that every US$1 invested in care-related measures could yield up to US$3.76 in global GDP by 2035 and increase women’s labour force participation by more than 10 percentage points.

“Gender inequalities are multifaceted, but labour income data provide a clear, comprehensive picture of their magnitude,” says the ILO. “Progress has been made, but it is neither fast nor evenly distributed. Addressing the structural causes — not just the symptoms — is critical to ensuring that women can fully participate in and benefit from the future of work.”