The gender wage gap remains one of the most persistent indicators of inequality in the global labor market. According to a report by OECD, “Gender gaps in paid and unpaid work persist”, women are less likely than men to be employed, to work part-time, to put in fewer hours at paid jobs, and to put in more hours at unpaid jobs. Their income, employment opportunities, and social protection benefits, such as pension income, are all adversely impacted by this. Despite decades of policy reforms, advocacy, and international commitments to gender equality, women continue to earn less than men across most regions of the world.
Asia
Gender parity in Central Asia stands at 69.8% ranking the region fourth among eight globally, with Armenia leading within the region. However, talking about the gender pay gap, Southeast asian Asian women earn 30-40% less than men on average, according to the Asian Development Bank. Various reasons are contributing to this gap, including career breaks for children, part-time work preference, persistent discrimination, and others. But countries like China, Hong Kong, and the Philippines perform relatively better, with men earning 15% more than women.
Also, ADB data indicate a gradual improvement in gender pay equality, with the female-to-male salary ratio across grade levels rising from 81% in 2000 to 93% in 2022. Women across Asia and the Pacific continue to carry a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work, five times more in Korea, and up to ten times more in Pakistan. These factors rank Pakistan at 151st out of 159 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report.
Europe
The gender pay gap differs significantly across the different countries. Worldwide Europe has the second lowest gender pay gap, after North America. In 2023, the European Union conducted a study about the gender wage gap across its different countries. Results show that across the continent women’s earnings were about 12.0% below men’s in the European Union, and about 12.3% lower in the whole European area. Latvia has the highest pay gap of the European countries with a difference of 19.0%. Luxembourg is the only country where the average of women’s wages is not lower than men’s, with -0.9%. The study clearly shows that the age of workers has a huge impact on the payment for their work. The gap is generally much lower for young people in the labor market and widens with time. While the gender pay gap between men and women in Europe is relatively low compared to other continents, the motherhood penalty is significant. Women earn in Europe about 29% less after their first child, making it the third highest penalty after Latin America (37%) and Oceania (30%). Men in Europe earn on average 1-2% more money after their first child.
Africa
African women also go through the same gender pay gap parity as the UN Women in their 2023 report on ‘Why Women Earn Less: Gender Pay Gap and Labour Market Inequalities in East and Southern Africa’ derived from data from 10 countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and South Africa concluded that women still earn less than 21% than men in these nations. Hence, resulting in women earning 81 cents for every US dollar earned by men. One of the driving forces behind this parity is the ‘evidence of the glass ceiling’ that prohibits women from working high paying jobs in addition to the time women spend on household responsibilities that limits their working hours. In nations such as Mozambique and Tanzania, the pay gap parity was found to be ‘statistically insignificant after adjusting for individual and job characteristics.
The World Economic Forum’s report ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2025’ ranks Sub-Saharan Africa as sixth with a gender parity score of 68.0% and Middle East and Northern Africa at eighth place with a regional gender parity score of 61.7% respectively.
Despite numerous nations decreasing their existing wage gap over the past decades, in South Africa this gap has widened with women’s earnings shifting from 89 cents for every 1 ZAR earned by men in 2008 to 79 cents for every 1 ZAR in 2021. The SA-TIED (Southern Africa – Towards Inclusive Economic Development) attributes this decrease to gender segregation in the labour market and gender based inequalities.
America
In North America, the gender wage gap stands similarly to those around the world. Canada and America the United States are the most alike. A 2023 study by the Gender Equality Agency stated, “The US is 30th on the list for wage gap inequality compared to other countries, and shows that women make around 65% of what men make annually. Canada on the other hand ranks at 67% of annual income.”
However, if you look at the wage disparity in Central America and the Caribbean, you see that women make 70 cents on the dollar in contrast to the United States 83 cents. The study that the World Bank conducted explained that the disparity between working men and women was higher in those who were in high earning fields. In the article they state “the gender wage gap in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a persistent problem. Working women in the region earn, on average, 70 cents for every dollar earned by men.”
RESEARCH | ARTICLE © Subrishti Karki, Hannah Hayes, Fenia Rienecker, Aditi Shrestha
IMAGE © by Aditi Shrestha
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