2025 World Inequality Report Highlights Persistent Gender Inequality in Global Economy
The 2025 World Inequality Report reveals that gender inequality remains deeply entrenched and is a defining characteristic of the global economy. When considering both paid and unpaid labor, women earn approximately 32% of what men earn per hour; excluding unpaid labor, women's wages amount to about 61% of men's. Women aged 15 to 64 work on average 10 more hours weekly than men yet account for only around 28% of total income in 2025 — a share that has barely shifted in the past 35 years.
Global wealth concentration is also extreme: the richest 10% hold nearly three-quarters of total wealth, whereas the poorest half possess about 2%. Gender gaps in working hours vary by region, with the largest gaps of 12 to 13 hours per week found in the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, and South/Southeast Asia. The smallest gaps, 6 to 7 hours weekly, are seen in Europe, North America, and Oceania. Female employment rates remain lower than males in every region, particularly in South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa, where roughly one in three working-age women are employed compared to over two-thirds of men.
Structural barriers such as lack of affordable childcare, transport, and family leave policies continue to impede women's workforce participation and retention, perpetuating the persistent gender pay gap globally. Unpaid care work disproportionately falls on women, steering many into lower-quality or part-time jobs with lower pay due to prevailing gender norms. Although some progress has been made in labor rights and equal-pay laws, improvement is uneven.
Experts from UN Women and economists like Jayati Ghosh and Joseph Stiglitz highlight the backsliding of democratic institutions and increasing threats to women's rights globally. Aatif Somji of the ODI underscores the ongoing invisibility and burden of unpaid care work borne by women, emphasizing it as a central obstacle to achieving workplace equality.
