Incidence of low and high pay — High pay Incidence by country
This dataset contains series on the incidence of low-paid workers defined as the share of full-time workers earning less than two-thirds of gross median earnings of all full-time workers; the incidence of high-paid workers defined as the share of full-time workers earning more than one-and-half time gross median...
What the numbers show
Incidence of low and high pay — High pay Incidence is currently reported for 32 countries. The highest value is 33.09 Percentage of full-time employment in Ireland; the lowest is 2.5 Percentage of full-time employment in Denmark.
The median across all reporting countries is 21.15 Percentage of full-time employment, and the mean is 21.65 Percentage of full-time employment.
The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 13.
Over the past decade 8 countries rose and 24 fell. The largest increase was in Argentina (up 77.6%), and the largest decrease in Japan (down 30.0%).
Incidence of low and high pay — High pay Incidence: full country ranking
| # | Country | Latest | Year | 10-year change | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ireland | 33.09 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | up 27.3% | rising |
| 2 | Argentina | 31.06 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | up 77.6% | rising |
| 3 | Bulgaria | 29.9 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | up 6.8% | rising |
| 4 | India | 29.88 Percentage of full-time employment | 2025 | down 0.9% | flat |
| 5 | Israel | 28.87 Percentage of full-time employment | 2023 | up 0.7% | flat |
| 6 | Chile | 27.6 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | up 5.5% | flat |
| 7 | Luxembourg | 26.32 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | up 5.3% | rising |
| 8 | Peru | 26.19 Percentage of full-time employment | 2022 | down 5.8% | falling |
| 9 | Romania | 26.17 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 9.8% | flat |
| 10 | Cyprus | 26.17 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 6.5% | rising |
| 11 | Brazil | 25.47 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 6.3% | falling |
| 12 | Colombia | 25.12 Percentage of full-time employment | 2025 | down 4.2% | falling |
| 13 | Portugal | 24.57 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 20.7% | falling |
| 14 | United Kingdom | 23.1 Percentage of full-time employment | 2023 | down 13.2% | flat |
| 15 | Canada | 21.96 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 2.1% | rising |
| 16 | Spain | 21.3 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 18.1% | falling |
| 17 | Iceland | 21 Percentage of full-time employment | 2018 | down 22.2% | falling |
| 18 | Mexico | 20.79 Percentage of full-time employment | 2025 | down 0.2% | falling |
| 19 | Greece | 20.2 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 3.8% | falling |
| 20 | Australia | 19.95 Percentage of full-time employment | 2025 | up 3.6% | rising |
| 21 | OECD | 19.61 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 12.0% | falling |
| 22 | Austria | 19.42 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 6.6% | flat |
| 23 | Costa Rica | 19.27 Percentage of full-time employment | 2025 | up 6.1% | flat |
| 24 | France | 19 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 9.5% | falling |
| 25 | Germany | 17.67 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 5.5% | rising |
| 26 | Malta | 16.95 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 15.2% | falling |
| 27 | Italy | 16.27 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 14.4% | falling |
| 28 | Finland | 15.84 Percentage of full-time employment | 2023 | down 0.5% | rising |
| 29 | Norway | 13.68 Percentage of full-time employment | 2025 | down 0.7% | rising |
| 30 | Belgium | 12.87 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 0.3% | rising |
| 31 | Japan | 10.97 Percentage of full-time employment | 2025 | down 30.0% | falling |
| 32 | Denmark | 2.5 Percentage of full-time employment | 2024 | down 10.1% | rising |
Regions and income groups
Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.
- Croatia 21.88 Percentage of full-time employment
About this data
This dataset contains series on the incidence of low-paid workers defined as the share of full-time workers earning less than two-thirds of gross median earnings of all full-time workers; the incidence of high-paid workers defined as the share of full-time workers earning more than one-and-half time gross median earnings of all full-time workers.