Women earn 14.3% less than men but gap has narrowed

Differences in occupation the key factor influencing pay gap in 2023, says MOM

- Joanna Seow

Singapore has made strides in raising employment opportunities for women, though they are still earning less than men.

The median income for women working here was 14.3 per cent less than that for men in 2023, a narrower gap than the 16.3 per cent in 2018, according to the latest Ministry of Manpower (MOM) data.

The gender pay gap refers to the difference in the median income for female and male employees expressed as a percentage of the median income of male employees. For MOM’s study, the incomes of employees aged 25 to 54 who are Singaporean or permanent residents and working full-time were analysed.

Singapore’s pay gap was slightly worse than that across Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, which was 12.1 per cent in 2022. But the OECD data also shows the Republic did better than countries like the United States (17 per cent in 2022), Britain (14.5 per cent) and Japan (21.3 per cent).

Differences in occupation between men and women remained the key factor influencing the gender pay gap in 2023, among the various factors examined, said the ministry. One way this comes into play is where men are overrepresented in higher-paying occupations.

However, from 2018 to 2023, the gender pay gap narrowed as the occupational profile of females improved more than that of men, said MOM in an infographic released on its website on March 4.

A total of 75 per cent of women in 2023 were working in professional, managerial, executive and technician (PMET) jobs, an 8.8 percentage point increase from 2018. On the other hand, the proportion of men in PMET jobs increased by 6.3 percentage points in the same period to 79.4 per cent

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