Kuwait’s gender pay gap reaches 26.7% as women near half of national workforce
- Kuwait’s gender wage gap widens to 32.2% in private sector
- Kuwaiti women nearly match men in workforce numbers, but not in average pay
- Kuwait gender pay gap: women earn 501 dinars less than men on average
As the world marks International Equal Pay Day on September 18, Kuwait’s latest wage figures highlight a striking contrast: Kuwaiti women have moved close to parity with men in their share of the national workforce, yet a substantial difference remains in their average monthly earnings.
According to the latest data from the Central Statistical Bureau for the first quarter of 2026, the average monthly salary of Kuwaiti men working in the public and private sectors stood at 1,877 dinars, compared with 1,376 dinars for Kuwaiti women. The difference is 501 dinars a month, putting the average wage gap at 26.7 percent.
Put simply, for every 100 dinars earned on average by a Kuwaiti man, a Kuwaiti woman earns around 73 dinars. But the figure requires careful interpretation: it compares the average earnings of all Kuwaiti men with those of all Kuwaiti women and does not, by itself, establish that women are paid less than men for identical jobs.
Women nearing parity in the national workforce
The wage figures become more significant when viewed against women’s growing participation in Kuwait’s labour market. Data from the Public Authority for Civil Information, as of the end of June 2026, showed that around 3.3 million people were employed in Kuwait, with women accounting for approximately 30.7 percent, or more than one million workers.
Among Kuwaiti citizens, however, the balance is markedly different. Of approximately 495,700 working citizens, women represented 48.9 percent — around 242,000 women, compared with approximately 253,000 men That means Kuwaiti women have come remarkably close to numerical parity with men in the national workforce. The income figures, however, show that this near-parity in participation has not translated into comparable average earnings.
Private-sector gap exceeds 32 percent
The difference is present in both the government and private sectors, but it is considerably wider in the private sector.
| Sector | Kuwaiti men | Kuwaiti women | Average wage gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Government + private | 1,877 dinars | 1,376 dinars | 26.7% |
| Government | 1,929 dinars | 1,414 dinars | 26.7% |
| Private | 1,681 dinars | 1,140 dinars | 32.2% |
In the private sector, Kuwaiti men earned an average of 1,681 dinars a month, compared with 1,140 dinars for Kuwaiti women — a difference of 541 dinars. The private-sector figures therefore point to an average female wage roughly one-third below the corresponding male average.
Women’s wages are rising faster
The figures also contain a more positive trend. Although the wage gap remains substantial, women’s average salaries increased faster than men’s over the past year. Between the first quarters of 2025 and 2026, the average salary of Kuwaiti women across the public and private sectors increased from 1,348 to 1,376 dinars, a rise of about 2 percent.
For Kuwaiti men, the average increased from 1,865 to 1,877 dinars, representing growth of approximately 0.64 percent. The difference is more pronounced in the private sector. Women’s average salaries rose from 1,070 to 1,140 dinars, an increase of approximately 6.5 percent, while men’s average salaries increased by around 1.1 percent.
Averages do not tell the whole story
The trend therefore shows women’s average earnings moving upward at a faster rate, particularly in the private sector, even though the overall wage gap remains significant. One of the most important qualifications in interpreting the figures is that an average wage gap is not the same as unequal pay for the same work.
The 26.7 percent figure does not show whether a Kuwaiti man and woman with the same job title, qualifications, experience and responsibilities receive different salaries. Average earnings can be influenced by the types of occupations held by men and women, the sectors in which they work, job grades, years of experience and access to managerial and senior positions.
This distinction is important because the question of whether women receive equal pay for comparable work requires more detailed, job-level data than the overall salary averages provide. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, for example, treats “equal pay for similar work” as a separate indicator from estimated earned income, labour-force participation and access to senior positions.
Education nearly equal, economic opportunity less so
International data provide another dimension to Kuwait’s gender-equality picture. In the 2025 Global Gender Gap Report, Kuwait ranked 128th among 148 countries, compared with 131st in 2024. The report estimated that Kuwait had closed approximately 99.3 percent of its gender gap in education.
The picture was considerably different in economic participation and opportunity, where the gap was reported as 55.1 percent closed. The economic indicator covers more than wages. It takes into account factors including labour-force participation, income, equal pay for similar work and access to professional, technical and senior positions.
The contrast is therefore significant: Kuwait has achieved near-parity in educational outcomes, while women have also approached men in their numerical share of the citizen workforce, but the broader economic opportunity gap remains much larger.
The next question is about the quality of participation
Kuwait continues to pursue women’s empowerment under New Kuwait 2035 and the Sustainable Development Goals, alongside programmes aimed at developing women’s capabilities and expanding their participation in decision-making positions. The latest wage figures, however, shift the discussion from simply asking how many women are working to examining where they work, which positions they occupy and how far they progress within the pay and career structure.
The data show that Kuwaiti women now account for nearly half of the country’s citizen workforce, but their average earnings remain substantially below those of Kuwaiti men. So, does Kuwait have a gender wage gap? Yes — when measured by average earnings. The average Kuwaiti woman earned 1,376 dinars a month in the first quarter of 2026, compared with 1,877 dinars for the average Kuwaiti man, leaving a 501-dinar difference and a 26.7 percent gap. In the private sector, the gap rose to 32.2 percent.
But whether a Kuwaiti woman receives less than a man for exactly the same work cannot be established from these averages alone. That distinction is at the heart of the issue: Kuwait’s women have come close to achieving numerical parity in the national workforce, while the available income data show that parity in participation has yet to be matched by parity in average earnings.
