Data for 2021
Low Pay Rate, 2021
2021, as ILO’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten
Low Pay Rate, 2021 covers 63 countries. Zimbabwe is highest, at 47.90; New Zealand is lowest, at 1.60. The middle country reads 19.88. Against 2020, 46 values changed (9 up, 37 down), 17 countries joined, 9 left.
Low Pay Rate · Data for 2021
HighestZimbabwe
47.90
LowestNew Zealand
1.60Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the lowest end. A higher value is the worse result.
01Position · derived
The table
Every country and every column of Low Pay Rate, 2021, as published. ILO ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.
Showing 25 of 63 countries · select a heading to sort
| derived | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ZimbabweZWEEastern Africa | 47.90 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 2 |  JordanJORWestern Asia | 41.19 | Employment and Unemployment Survey | — | — |
| 3 |  ZambiaZMBEastern Africa | 38.60 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 4 |  EthiopiaETHEastern Africa | 38.59 | National Labor Force Survey | — | — |
| 5 |  BotswanaBWASouthern Africa | 37.50 | Multi-Topic Household Survey | — | — |
| 6 |  AngolaAGOMiddle Africa | 36.43 | Employment Survey | — | — |
| 7 |  UgandaUGAEastern Africa | 35.30 | National Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 8 |  EswatiniSWZSouthern Africa | 34.30 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 9 |  RwandaRWAEastern Africa | 33.80 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 10 |  PalestinePSEWestern Asia | 31.91 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 11 |  HondurasHNDCentral America | 30.78 | Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Survey | — | — |
| 12 |  ComorosCOMEastern Africa | 30.24 | National Survey on Employment and the Informal Sector | — | — |
| 13 |  Timor-LesteTLSSouth-eastern Asia | 30.16 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 14 |  IndonesiaIDNSouth-eastern Asia | 28.74 | National Labour Force Survey | — | Break in series |
| 15 |  TongaTONPolynesia | 26.15 | Household Income and Expenditure Survey | — | — |
| 16 |  IndiaINDSouthern Asia | 26.07 | Periodic Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 17 |  Sri LankaLKASouthern Asia | 25.59 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 18 |  BhutanBTNSouthern Asia | 25.52 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 19 |  ArgentinaARGSouth America | 23.85 | Permanent Household Survey, Urban | Geographical coverage: Main cities or metropolitan areas | — |
| 20 |  IsraelISRWestern Asia | 23.39 | Income Survey | — | — |
| 21 |  Bosnia and HerzegovinaBIHSouthern Europe | 22.49 | Labour Force Survey | — | Break in series |
| 22 |  BoliviaBOLSouth America | 22.27 | Continuous Employment Survey | — | Break in series |
| 23 |  MexicoMEXCentral America | 22.16 | National Occupation and Employment Survey | — | — |
| 24 |  United StatesUSANorthern America | 21.87 | Current Population Survey | — | — |
| 25 |  United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe | 21.71 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 26 |  EcuadorECUSouth America | 21.47 | National Survey on Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment | — | — |
| 27 |  PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia | 21.43 | Labour Force Survey | — | Break in series |
| 28 |  HungaryHUNEastern Europe | 21.04 | Survey of Individual Wages and Earnings | — | — |
| 29 |  Dominican RepublicDOMCaribbean | 20.94 | Continuous National Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 30 |  MauritiusMUSEastern Africa | 20.21 | Continuous Multi-Purpose Household Survey | — | — |
| 31 |  PeruPERSouth America | 19.90 | National Household Survey | — | — |
| 32 |  SwitzerlandCHEWestern Europe | 19.88 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 33 |  CanadaCANNorthern America | 19.64 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 34 |  PakistanPAKSouthern Asia | 19.39 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 35 |  GuyanaGUYSouth America | 18.56 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 36 |  MoldovaMDAEastern Europe | 18.44 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 37 |  AustraliaAUSAustralia and New Zealand | 17.88 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 38 |  El SalvadorSLVCentral America | 17.80 | Multi-purpose Household Survey | — | — |
| 39 |  ParaguayPRYSouth America | 17.44 | Continuous Permanent Household Survey | — | — |
| 40 |  CzechiaCZEEastern Europe | 17.25 | Periodic Census of Employers | — | — |
| 41 |  PanamaPANCentral America | 17.15 | Labour Market Survey | — | Break in series |
| 42 |  CambodiaKHMSouth-eastern Asia | 16.60 | Household Socio-Economic Survey | — | — |
| 43 |  EgyptEGYNorthern Africa | 16.30 | Labour Force Sample Survey | — | — |
| 44 |  GermanyDEUWestern Europe | 16.24 | German Socio-Economic Panel | — | — |
| 45 |  South KoreaKOREastern Asia | 15.63 | Survey on labor conditions by employment type | — | — |
| 46 |  ColombiaCOLSouth America | 15.35 | Integrated Household Survey | — | — |
| 47 |  MongoliaMNGEastern Asia | 15.27 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 48 |  AustriaAUTWestern Europe | 14.96 | Wage Tax Statistics | — | — |
| 49 |  SlovakiaSVKEastern Europe | 14.00 | Monthly Structure of Earnings Survey | — | — |
| 50 |  VietnamVNMSouth-eastern Asia | 14.00 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 51 |  TürkiyeTURWestern Asia | 13.84 | Household Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 52 |  ThailandTHASouth-eastern Asia | 12.72 | Labour Force Survey | — | — |
| 53 |  BrazilBRASouth America | 12.70 | Continuous National Household Sample Survey | — | — |
| 54 |  Costa RicaCRICentral America | 12.00 | Continuous Employment Survey | — | — |
| 55 |  BelgiumBELWestern Europe | 11.10 | Structure of Earnings Survey | — | — |
| 56 |  JapanJPNEastern Asia | 10.66 | Wage Structure Survey | — | — |
| 57 |  FranceFRAWestern Europe | 10.20 | Employment Survey | — | — |
| 58 |  DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe | 9.54 | Insurance Records | — | — |
| 59 |  ChileCHLSouth America | 8.73 | National Survey on Socio-Economic Conditions | — | — |
| 60 |  FinlandFINNorthern Europe | 8.36 | Income Distribution Survey | — | — |
| 61 |  NorwayNORNorthern Europe | 7.43 | Labour-related Establishment Survey | — | — |
| 62 |  PortugalPRTSouthern Europe | 4.83 | Employment Survey | — | — |
| 63 | New ZealandNZLAustralia and New Zealand | 1.60 | Household Economic Survey | — | — |
02In 2021
At either end
The 5 countries at each end of the headline.
032020 → 2021
Since 2020
What changed between 2020 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.
- +17 / −9countries joined / left
- 46values changed, of 46 in both
- 9 · 37rose · fell
- 0unchanged
Rose most
- Botswana34.26 → 37.50+3.24
- Palestine30.03 → 31.91+1.88
- Hungary19.85 → 21.04+1.19
- Cambodia15.47 → 16.60+1.13
- Philippines20.81 → 21.43+0.62
Fell most
- New Zealand8.26 → 1.60−6.66
- Jordan46.37 → 41.19−5.18
- Panama21.95 → 17.15−4.80
- Bosnia and Herzegovina26.98 → 22.49−4.49
- Brazil16.20 → 12.70−3.50
+ Bolivia+ Colombia+ Comoros+ Denmark+ Ecuador+ Ethiopia+ Finland+ Mauritius+ Pakistan+ Paraguay+ Rwanda+ El Salvador+ Eswatini+ Timor-Leste+ Tonga+ Uganda+ Zimbabwe
− Afghanistan
− Greece
− Italy
− Mali
− Myanmar
− Poland
− Puerto Rico
− Tanzania
− UruguayBoth years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.
04Caveats
Read before you use
What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.
One year of the 2026 release
Every year in this series comes from ILO’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 2021.
The position is ours
ILO publishes values only. The order here sorts the published values, and the page says so wherever it prints one.
Which end is better
A higher value is the worse result.
120 empty cells
An empty cell means the publisher gave no figure. It is never a zero.
Some readings carry a flag
ILO marks readings it considers estimates or provisional. The flags in this file: Break in series.
05The files
Download and cite
The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.
- .csv
For a spreadsheet or code
63 rows · 4.5 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download low-pay-rate-2021-nations-inquiry.csv - ↗
The publisher’s original
ILO’s own file, on its own site.
https://rplumber.ilo.org/data/indicator/?id=EAR_XTLP_SEX_RT&format=.csv&channel=ilostat
What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.
Licence: CC BY 4.0. Share, adapt and use commercially. Credit the publisher and say if you changed anything.
Cite this edition
International Labour Organization (ILO) (2021). Low Pay Rate, 2021 [data set], describing 2021. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/low-pay-rate/2021
0618 held
Other years
‹ The year before
Low Pay Rate, 202055 countries
The year after ›
Low Pay Rate, 202275 countries
All of them
Low Pay Rate: every year18 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country
07Questions
Low Pay Rate, 2021: questions and answers
Which country has the highest low pay in Low Pay Rate, 2021?
Zimbabwe, at 47.90, of the 63 countries in the file.
What year does Low Pay Rate, 2021 describe?
2021.
How many countries does Low Pay Rate, 2021 cover?
63.
Where can I download Low Pay Rate, 2021?
On this page, as a CSV file holding every value exactly as published, or from the publisher’s own site, linked below.
Is Low Pay Rate, 2021 the newest?
No. The newest held here is Low Pay Rate, 2024.