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

Qatar ranks first with 99.3% of male workers in wage and salaried employment, meaning nearly every working man holds a formal paid job. At the other end, Chad ranks 186th at just 11.9%, where self-employment and informal work dominate. The 87-percentage-point gap between top and bottom reflects deep structural differences in labor markets across the 186 countries covered.

Labour category

Ranking 2025

Values shown in %.

Countries by Wage and salaried workers, male (% of male employment) (modeled ILO estimate)
Rank	Country	%
1	Qatar	99.26
2	Bahrain	97.75
3	Kuwait	96.32
4	Oman	95.27
5	United Arab Emirates	94.97
6	Saudi Arabia	94.72
7	Norway	93.77
8	Brunei	93.74
9	Belarus	93.00
10	Russia	92.95
11	United States	92.02
12	Macao	90.58
13	Denmark	90.14
14	Germany	89.87
15	Japan	89.67
16	Luxembourg	89.20
17	Hong Kong	89.12
18	Cyprus	88.25
19	U.S. Virgin Islands	88.21
20	Jordan	87.10
21	Sweden	86.23
22	Hungary	85.88
23	Israel	85.81
24	Bulgaria	85.67
25	Lithuania	85.64
26	Austria	85.51
27	Canada	84.69
28	France	84.38
29	Latvia	84.14
30	United Kingdom	83.84
31	Singapore	83.84
32	Estonia	83.53
33	Maldives	83.45
34	Croatia	83.44
35	Finland	83.38
36	Puerto Rico	83.35
37	Malta	83.08
38	Romania	82.98
39	Iceland	82.85
40	Slovenia	82.67
41	Guam	82.61
42	Portugal	82.51
43	Spain	82.51
44	Belgium	82.28
45	Ireland	81.72
46	Switzerland	81.53
47	Czechia	80.71
48	South Africa	80.60
49	Australia	80.47
50	Bosnia and Herzegovina	80.39
51	North Macedonia	79.63
52	Netherlands	79.59
53	French Polynesia	79.36
54	Slovakia	78.95
55	New Zealand	78.54
56	New Caledonia	78.26
57	Montenegro	77.67
58	Mauritius	77.46
59	Ukraine	77.36
60	Bahamas	76.80
61	Poland	76.61
62	Suriname	76.32
63	Palestine	75.99
64	Chile	75.22
65	Equatorial Guinea	75.13
66	Italy	75.04
67	South Korea	74.70
68	Barbados	74.28
69	Eswatini	74.24
70	Egypt	73.79
71	Kazakhstan	73.18
72	Libya	72.86
73	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	72.48
74	Argentina	72.38
75	Botswana	71.91
76	Cuba	71.29
77	Tunisia	71.23
78	Costa Rica	71.18
79	Gabon	71.05
80	Türkiye	70.84
81	Tajikistan	70.67
82	Malaysia	70.39
83	Serbia	70.31
84	Uruguay	70.04
85	Mexico	69.27
86	El Salvador	69.20
87	Iraq	69.04
88	Algeria	68.57
89	Namibia	68.42
90	Cabo Verde	68.39
91	Trinidad and Tobago	67.98
92	Guatemala	67.90
93	Guyana	67.40
94	Philippines	67.38
95	Armenia	67.02
96	Lebanon	66.95
97	Saint Lucia	66.30
98	Kyrgyzstan	66.27
99	Belize	65.89
100	Turkmenistan	65.64
101	Brazil	65.50
102	Greece	65.11
103	Fiji	65.06
104	Rwanda	62.63
105	Honduras	61.25
106	China	60.43
107	Jamaica	59.86
108	Tonga	59.10
109	Nicaragua	58.92
110	Paraguay	58.57
111	Venezuela	58.09
112	Lesotho	57.83
113	Panama	57.10
114	Sri Lanka	57.10
115	Mongolia	57.10
116	Sao Tome and Principe	56.40
117	Iran	55.97
118	Morocco	55.95
119	Sudan	55.79
120	Syria	54.25
121	Eritrea	53.61
122	Somalia	53.53
123	Ecuador	53.41
124	Djibouti	53.19
125	Colombia	52.33
126	Samoa	51.52
127	Peru	51.39
128	Indonesia	51.30
129	Vietnam	51.28
130	Georgia	50.94
131	Comoros	50.67
132	Dominican Republic	50.55
133	Cambodia	49.54
134	Mauritania	49.27
135	Thailand	48.52
136	Albania	48.16
137	Yemen	48.14
138	Pakistan	47.71
139	Uzbekistan	46.38
140	Gambia	44.40
141	Malawi	44.37
142	Kenya	43.32
143	Senegal	42.50
144	Moldova	42.17
145	Vanuatu	41.86
146	Bangladesh	41.16
147	North Korea	39.55
148	Bhutan	39.05
149	Solomon Islands	39.00
150	Ghana	38.16
151	Azerbaijan	37.56
152	Cameroon	37.54
153	Zimbabwe	36.68
154	Bolivia	36.67
155	Côte d'Ivoire	36.61
156	Republic of Congo	35.51
157	Zambia	35.48
158	Myanmar	34.35
159	Guinea-Bissau	33.79
160	Angola	33.54
161	Liberia	33.00
162	Togo	31.40
163	Haiti	29.82
164	Timor-Leste	29.30
165	Nepal	28.62
166	Papua New Guinea	27.63
167	Mali	27.02
168	Laos	26.92
169	India	26.66
170	Uganda	26.28
171	Benin	24.44
172	Guinea	23.70
173	Burkina Faso	22.84
174	Burundi	21.29
175	Mozambique	21.05
176	DR Congo	20.25
177	South Sudan	19.66
178	Tanzania	19.63
179	Ethiopia	17.43
180	Central African Republic	17.31
181	Afghanistan	17.23
182	Sierra Leone	16.98
183	Nigeria	16.96
184	Niger	15.39
185	Madagascar	13.86
186	Chad	11.93

Analysis

This metric measures wage and salaried workers as a share of total male employment, expressed as a percentage. According to the source definition, wage and salaried workers (employees) 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. Self-employed workers, own-account workers, and contributing family workers are excluded. Data come from the World Bank World Development Indicators (indicator code SL.EMP.WORK.MA.ZS), covering 186 countries for the 2025 reference year. All 186 data points are classified as official estimates, and 181 of 186 countries (97.3%) report data from the latest year. No extreme outliers were identified using a 3-standard-deviation threshold.

The top of the ranking is dominated by Gulf states and high-income economies with large formal labor sectors. Qatar ranks first at 99.3%, followed by Bahrain at 97.8%, Kuwait at 96.3%, Oman at 95.3%, and the United Arab Emirates at 94.97%. Saudi Arabia ranks 6th at 94.7%. These Gulf states have workforces composed heavily of migrant labor under formal employment contracts, which pulls the share of wage workers very high. Norway (7th, 93.8%), Belarus (9th, 93.0%), Russia (10th, 92.95%), and the United States (11th, 92.0%) also rank in the top tier, reflecting mature formal labor markets with high rates of employer-employee relationships.

Middle-ranking countries show considerable variation. South Africa ranks 48th at 80.6%, notable as the highest-ranked sub-Saharan African country. Brazil ranks 101st at 65.5%, and China ranks 106th at 60.4%, placing both large emerging economies in the lower half despite substantial industrial employment. Greece ranks 102nd at 65.1%, lower than most of its European peers. India ranks 169th at 26.7%, reflecting the large share of self-employed and informal male workers in its labor force. In sub-Saharan Africa, most countries fall in the bottom third: Nigeria ranks 183rd at 17.0%, Ethiopia 179th at 17.4%, and Tanzania 178th at 19.6%. The bottom five are Chad (186th, 11.9%), Madagascar (185th, 13.9%), Niger (184th, 15.4%), Nigeria (183rd, 17.0%), and Sierra Leone (182nd, 16.98%).

This metric captures only the share of male employment that is wage-based; it says nothing about job quality, wage levels, hours worked, or informality within nominally formal jobs. Countries with large agricultural sectors or high rates of subsistence and own-account work will show low shares regardless of total employment volume. The modeled ILO estimates used here involve statistical imputation for countries with infrequent surveys, which can reduce precision for lower-income countries. Cross-country comparisons are also affected by differences in how employment contracts are defined and recorded in national surveys. The metric covers only male employment and cannot be used to assess gender gaps or overall workforce composition without reference to the parallel female indicator.

Methodology

Data are drawn from the World Bank World Development Indicators, indicator code SL.EMP.WORK.MA.ZS, for the reference year 2025. The metric measures wage and salaried workers as a percentage of total male employment, using modeled ILO estimates. Per the source definition, wage and salaried workers (employees) 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 dataset covers 186 countries, exceeding the 80-country coverage threshold. All 186 data points are classified as official quality (100%), and 181 of 186 countries (97.3%) report values for the latest year. Average year-over-year change is 1.1%, indicating low volatility. No extreme outliers were detected at the 3-standard-deviation threshold. Values range from 11.93% (Chad) to 99.26% (Qatar), a spread of 732.3%. Modeled estimates for countries with infrequent household surveys may carry higher uncertainty, particularly in low-income regions.

Sources

World Bank