Women in Brazil Are More Educated but Earn Nearly 20% Less Than Men at Work, Census Says - Folha de S.Paulo

Despite being more educated, including at the university level, Brazilian women earned nearly 20% less than men on average in the labor market in 2022, according to data from the Demographic Census released on Thursday (9).

According to the report, 28.9% of employed women had completed higher education in 2022. That share was 11.6 percentage points higher than among men (17.3%).

Having more years of schooling, however, was no guarantee of higher wages. Experts say this reveals deep-rooted gender discrimination in the job market — causing women to earn less than men even in equivalent professions, positions, and education levels.

Researcher Marcos Hecksher notes that there are proportionally more women with higher education working in lower-paying professions (such as nursing, teaching, and psychology) and fewer in better-paying fields (like mathematics, engineering, and technology). Taken together, this pulls down women’s average earnings.

"But the gender bias is clear, which ultimately results in fewer opportunities for advancement for women in equivalent professions," he says.

According to Marcelo Neri, director of FGV Social, wage gaps between men and women are larger among the wealthier groups. "Even though women are now more educated than men — including because there are more women than men in universities — they continue to earn less," says Neri.