How the gender pay gap still plagues Brazil’s labor market

That Brazilian women workers earn less money than their male counterparts is hardly breaking news. It is an unfortunate reality throughout the world—even in Iceland, the Nordic country which leads the World Economic Forum’s gender equality ranking for the past decade. What is somewhat surprising in Brazil is that, unlike in many countries, the gender pay gap becomes even more pronounced in high-level positions. A female manager often earns as little as one-third of the salary of her male counterpart.

A recent study by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) shows that a female manager in the healthcare sector earns, on average, BRL 4,764 per month. For men, this jumps up to BRL 14,891. In the mining field, a female director’s pay averages...