Across Pakistan, women are the unsung backbone of homes and fields, dedicating countless hours to unpaid labor with little fanfare. For those who break into paid work, the reality is no less challenging: their earnings lag far behind those of men, a gap that echoes a deeper inequity.

A recent report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) shines a stark light on this divide, naming Pakistan as home to one of the world’s widest gender pay gaps. It’s a story of resilience met with unfairness, where the value of a woman’s work too often goes unrecognized—and underpaid.

In Pakistan, countless women pour their hearts and souls into endless hours of unpaid labor—whether it’s nurturing their families at home or toiling under the sun in agriculture. Yet, for those who step into the world of formal employment, the reward is disheartening: their paychecks pale in comparison to those of their male colleagues. A recent report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) lays bare this stark inequality, revealing that Pakistan grapples with one of the widest gender pay gaps (GPG) globally, where women consistently earn far less than men across nearly every industry.

The numbers paint a sobering picture. The ILO estimates Pakistan’s gender pay gap at a staggering 25 percent—higher than many of its South Asian neighbors. In Sri Lanka, for example, the gap, calculated using hourly wages, sits at 22 percent, while Nepal fares better at 18 percent. Meanwhile, Bangladesh tells a different story entirely: there, the gap flips to a surprising -5 percent. This anomaly stems from the country’s booming garment industry, a powerhouse of exports where women dominate the workforce. It’s a curious trend—when women outnumber men in a field, their wages often hold stronger ground.

Digging deeper, the ILO report uncovers a patchwork of disparities across Pakistan’s labor landscape. In the formal sector, where employment laws carry weight, the pay gap nearly vanishes—men and women earn roughly the same. Take the public sector, the nation’s biggest employer: thanks to tightly enforced regulations, wage differences here are minimal, offering a glimmer of fairness. But step into the informal and household sectors, and the story darkens. Here, the pay gap balloons to over 40 percent—a crushing divide in jobs that already scrape the bottom of the pay barrel. Far too many women and girls find themselves trapped in these undervalued roles, their potential stifled by limited access to education or chances to sharpen their skills.

Education, it turns out, is a game-changer. The higher a woman climbs the ladder of learning or expertise, the more the pay gap fades into the background. Among engineers, the difference in earnings between men and women shrinks to 10 percent. For doctors, it’s a mere 5 percent. Yet, in fields like product and fashion design, the gap widens again to 18 percent. This isn’t just a Pakistani story—even in the gleaming economies of the West, a subtle thread of gender bias still weaves through workplaces, leaving women with less for the same effort. And there, too, women often cluster in lower-paying sectors, a stubborn echo of the global struggle.

What’s striking about Pakistan’s pay gap, the report notes, is that it can’t be fully pinned on differences in skills, education, or job types. A hefty chunk of it remains a mystery—or perhaps not. Gender bias lurks as an obvious culprit, a quiet force tilting the scales. Then there’s the harsh reality of the informal sector, where employers exploit weak enforcement of labor laws to shortchange women, paying them far less than men for identical roles, hours, and grit.

Pakistan pledged its commitment to fairness decades ago, ratifying the ILO’s Equal Remuneration Convention of 1951. That promise, now over 20 years old, calls for equal pay for equal work—across every corner of the workforce, formal or not. It’s a vow that demands action, a chance to rewrite the story for the women who keep homes running, fields thriving, and industries humming, yet still wait for the paycheck that matches their worth.

The promise of fairness isn’t new—Pakistan signed onto the ILO’s Equal Remuneration Convention over two decades ago, vowing equal pay for equal worth. Yet, that commitment remains a distant hope for too many women, especially those in the shadows of the informal sector. The gender pay gap isn’t just a statistic; it’s a call to action. It’s time to honor the tireless efforts of women who sustain households, farms, and industries alike, ensuring their paychecks reflect the true weight of their contributions. Only then can the scales of justice finally balance.