Public sector wage premium, by gender: Female (compared to all private employees) by country

Countries reporting
60
Highest
1.44 compared to all private employees
Zambia
Lowest
-0.287 compared to all private employees
Moldova, Republic of
Median
0.1781 compared to all private employees
Years covered
22
2000–2021
Data points
741

What the numbers show

Public sector wage premium, by gender: Female (compared to all private employees) is currently reported for 60 countries. The highest value is 1.44 compared to all private employees in Zambia; the lowest is -0.287 compared to all private employees in Moldova, Republic of.

The median across all reporting countries is 0.1781 compared to all private employees, and the mean is 0.2938 compared to all private employees.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 5.

Over the past decade 31 countries rose and 29 fell. The largest increase was in Estonia (up 16,445.2%), and the largest decrease in France (down 585.0%).

Public sector wage premium, by gender: Female: full country ranking

#Country LatestYear 10-year changeTrend
1 Zambia 1.44 compared to all private employees 2014 up 156.4% rising
2 Pakistan 1.32 compared to all private employees 2020 down 17.0% rising
3 Colombia 0.993 compared to all private employees 2020 up 36.4% rising
4 Namibia 0.9295 compared to all private employees 2015 down 21.6% rising
5 Sri Lanka 0.9141 compared to all private employees 2016 down 15.9% flat
6 Guatemala 0.7932 compared to all private employees 2017 up 175.9% rising
7 Philippines 0.7492 compared to all private employees 2014 up 22.4% rising
8 Costa Rica 0.6897 compared to all private employees 2021 down 0.8% rising
9 Palestine, State of 0.6834 compared to all private employees 2017 up 38.6% volatile
10 El Salvador 0.6618 compared to all private employees 2021 up 47.3% rising
11 Peru 0.5655 compared to all private employees 2021 up 269.9% volatile
12 Bolivia 0.5525 compared to all private employees 2021 up 160.0% volatile
13 Ecuador 0.5442 compared to all private employees 2017 up 10.3% rising
14 Tanzania, United Republic of 0.5317 compared to all private employees 2020 down 64.4% falling
15 Dominican Republic 0.5037 compared to all private employees 2019 up 232.6% volatile
16 Paraguay 0.5025 compared to all private employees 2021 up 280.0% rising
17 Ethiopia, The Federal Democratic Republic of 0.4572 compared to all private employees 2016 down 62.4% volatile
18 Panama 0.4086 compared to all private employees 2021 up 10.6% falling
19 Türkiye 0.4068 compared to all private employees 2010 down 41.1% falling
20 Uruguay 0.3954 compared to all private employees 2017 down 22.3% rising
21 Honduras 0.3601 compared to all private employees 2019 up 12.2% rising
22 Luxembourg 0.3577 compared to all private employees 2018 up 127.2% rising
23 Argentina 0.3495 compared to all private employees 2021 down 16.4% rising
24 Australia 0.3468 compared to all private employees 2015 up 157.2% rising
25 Mexico 0.2838 compared to all private employees 2019 down 4.9% rising
26 Brazil 0.2765 compared to all private employees 2021 up 75.6% rising
27 Spain 0.2433 compared to all private employees 2018 down 33.8% flat
28 Jordan 0.238 compared to all private employees 2016 up 133.4% volatile
29 Ireland 0.1932 compared to all private employees 2017 down 12.4% rising
30 Greece 0.1847 compared to all private employees 2018 up 9.0% falling
31 Chile 0.1715 compared to all private employees 2015 down 23.0% rising
32 Estonia 0.1677 compared to all private employees 2018 up 16,445.2% rising
33 Lithuania 0.1618 compared to all private employees 2018 down 5.5% falling
34 Cyprus 0.1557 compared to all private employees 2018 down 65.9% falling
35 Vietnam 0.155 compared to all private employees 2019 up 627.4% volatile
36 Austria 0.1371 compared to all private employees 2018 down 40.2% falling
37 Italy 0.1304 compared to all private employees 2018 down 26.4% falling
38 Latvia 0.1034 compared to all private employees 2018 down 20.1% falling
39 Serbia, Republic of 0.0984 compared to all private employees 2018 up 153.6% volatile
40 Malta 0.0943 compared to all private employees 2018 up 2,154.3% volatile
41 Romania 0.0888 compared to all private employees 2018 up 543.6% volatile
42 Bulgaria 0.0705 compared to all private employees 2018 up 144.2% volatile
43 Portugal 0.0586 compared to all private employees 2018 down 73.1% falling
44 Czechia 0.0525 compared to all private employees 2018 up 72.3% volatile
45 Croatia 0.0512 compared to all private employees 2018 down 73.0% volatile
46 Switzerland 0.0272 compared to all private employees 2018 up 144.0% volatile
47 United Kingdom 0.0073 compared to all private employees 2016 down 87.7% volatile
48 Poland -0.0005 compared to all private employees 2017 down 100.4% falling
49 Georgia -0.0051 compared to all private employees 2013 up 93.1% volatile
50 Belgium -0.0124 compared to all private employees 2018 up 79.0% volatile
51 Finland -0.0124 compared to all private employees 2018 down 195.7% volatile
52 Hungary -0.0177 compared to all private employees 2018 down 120.9% volatile
53 Slovak Republic -0.036 compared to all private employees 2017 down 155.4% volatile
54 South Africa -0.0411 compared to all private employees 2019 down 112.2% volatile
55 Russia -0.0554 compared to all private employees 2016 up 73.3% rising
56 Iceland -0.075 compared to all private employees 2013 up 32.6% rising
57 Mongolia -0.1066 compared to all private employees 2021 down 10.6% rising
58 Armenia, Republic of -0.155 compared to all private employees 2021 down 19.5% volatile
59 France -0.1705 compared to all private employees 2018 down 585.0% volatile
60 Moldova, Republic of -0.287 compared to all private employees 2012 up 5.0% rising

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

Public sector wage premium, by gender: Female by country. Statizoid. Retrieved 19 August 2026, from https://reference.statizoid.com/stat/public-sector-wage-premium-by-gender-female-compared-to-all-private-employees/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://reference.statizoid.com/stat/public-sector-wage-premium-by-gender-female-compared-to-all-private-employees/">Public sector wage premium, by gender: Female by country</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator
Public sector wage premium, by gender: Female (compared to all private employees)
Unit
compared to all private employees
Source
World Bank
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage
60 places, 741 data points, 2000–2021
Last refreshed