Scoping review reveals persistent gender wage gaps and occupational segregation in Latin American labor markets, indicating wage parity remains over fifty years away.
Key Points
Analyze the evolution of the gender pay gap in Latin America from 2010 to 2024 and identify the structural factors underlying cross-country labor market disparities.
Conducted a scoping review and comparative analysis using data from ILOSTAT, ECLAC/ECPALSTAT, the Gender Equality Observatory, the World Economic Forum, and national statistical institutes across Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru.
Assessed adjusted and unadjusted wage gaps alongside metrics for labor participation, informality, occupational segregation, educational attainment, and unpaid care work.
In 2023, the regional adjusted pay gap reached 19.8% for monthly income and 17.3% for hourly wages, compared to an 11% unadjusted wage gap.
Wage gap disparities ranged across countries from 6.3% in Colombia (reaching 28% in its informal sector) to 25.4% in Argentina.
Female labor force participation remained 22 percentage points below that of men, 78.1% of employed women occupied low-productivity activities, and closing the gap will require an estimated 53 years at the current pace.