Brazil Gender Pay Gap Widens to 21.2% in Private Sector, Government Reports

Overview

• Covering roughly 54,000 large private employers and 19.4 million employment links from late 2024 to mid‑2025, the report finds women average R$ 3,908.76 in pay versus R$ 4,958.43 for men.
• The gap has worsened across successive releases, rising from 19.4% (March 2024) to 20.7% (September 2024), 20.9% (April 2025) and now 21.2%.
• Disparities are far steeper for Black women, with a 33.5% difference in median admission pay versus non‑Black men and a 53.3% gap in average earnings.
• Women hold 41.1% of evaluated jobs but receive only 35% of the total wage mass, which the report estimates translates to about R$ 92.7 billion in foregone earnings.
• Firms most often cite tenure (78.7%), production targets (64.9%) and formal pay plans (56.4%) for differences, while only 21.9% offer childcare subsidies, 20.9% extend parental leave, and 2025 inspections produced 154 infractions from 787 actions.