Countries by Wage and salaried workers, female (% of female employment) (modeled ILO estimate)

Ranking 2025

Values shown in %.

Analysis

This metric measures the share of female employment that consists of wage and salaried work, expressed as a percentage. According to the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code SL.EMP.WORK.FE.ZS), wage and salaried workers are those workers who hold the type of jobs defined as paid employment jobs, where the incumbents hold explicit (written or oral) or implicit employment contracts that give them a basic remuneration that is not directly dependent upon the revenue of the unit for which they work. A higher percentage indicates that a greater proportion of employed women are in formal paid roles rather than self-employment, subsistence agriculture, or unpaid family work. The dataset covers 186 countries, all with data from within the last 7 years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. No extreme outliers were detected using a 3-standard-deviation threshold.

The top of the ranking is dominated by Gulf states and high-income economies. Qatar (rank 1, 98.76%) and Kuwait (rank 2, 98.62%) lead globally, followed by Bahrain (rank 3, 96.82%) and Jordan (rank 4, 96.65%). Norway (rank 5, 96.64%) is the highest-ranked European country, and the United States (rank 6, 96.19%) follows closely. Within the top 20, Belarus (rank 16, 93.34%) and the Russian Federation (rank 10, 94.44%) represent the post-Soviet bloc, while Japan (rank 18, 92.48%) and Singapore (rank 25, 91.71%) anchor East and Southeast Asia. These high-ranking countries generally have large formal sector labor markets and high shares of women in paid employment.

The middle of the ranking shows considerable regional variation. South Africa (rank 56, 85.28%) and Tunisia (rank 61, 84.83%) are the leading African economies by this measure, well ahead of most of the continent. In Latin America, Chile (rank 70, 77.24%) and Argentina (rank 71, 77.18%) lead, while Peru (rank 127, 45.29%) and Bolivia (rank 144, 30.34%) sit much lower. A notable anomaly is Moldova (rank 131, 40.46%), which ranks lower than several lower-income economies and sits well below neighboring Romania (rank 41, 88.97%), its closest regional comparison in the dataset. India (rank 153, 21.15%) ranks near the bottom despite its large economy, while China (rank 101, 64.60%) sits in the middle third of the ranking.

Several limitations apply to this metric. The modeled ILO estimates used here may mask differences in how countries define or collect employment data, particularly for informal and agricultural work. In economies where women's unpaid or subsistence labor is common but undercounted in surveys, the wage-share figure may overstate formal employment participation. The metric captures the structure of employment among those already counted as employed, and does not account for overall female labor force participation rates or unemployment. Countries where very few women are employed at all can still show high or low wage-share figures depending on who is counted. The indicator's 2943% spread between the minimum (3.25%) and maximum (98.76%) also suggests that raw rankings should be interpreted alongside participation rate data for full context.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SL.EMP.WORK.FE.ZS, with a reference year of 2025. The metric is a modeled ILO estimate representing wage and salaried workers as a percentage of total female employment. Per the source definition, wage and salaried workers are those workers who hold the type of jobs defined as paid employment jobs, where the incumbents hold explicit (written or oral) or implicit employment contracts that give them a basic remuneration that is not directly dependent upon the revenue of the unit for which they work. The ranking covers 186 countries, all meeting the minimum coverage threshold of 80 countries. All 186 countries (100%) have data from within the last 7 years, and 100% of datapoints are classified as official quality. No extreme outliers were detected at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. Average year-over-year change is 1.4%, well within the 50% volatility threshold. Values range from 3.25% (Chad) to 98.76% (Qatar), a spread of 2943%. Territorial and special administrative regions including Virgin Islands (U.S.), Puerto Rico, Macao SAR, Hong Kong SAR, New Caledonia, Guam, and French Polynesia are included in the dataset.

Sources

• World Bank