KUWAIT: The average monthly wage for non-Kuwaiti males is KD 318 (KD 322 at the end of the first half of 2022), and for non-Kuwaiti females about KD 481 (KD 493 at the end of the first half of 2022). The difference in favor of females is about 51.4 percent while the average monthly wage for Kuwaiti males and females in the two sectors is about KD 1,538 (KD 1,504 at the end of the first half of 2022), and for non-Kuwaitis about KD 337 (KD 342 at the end of the first half of 2022).

Official statistics showed that the number of workers in Kuwait at the end of the first half of this year reached about 2.07 million, excluding the number of domestic workers, an increase of 10 percent (188,000 workers), compared to 1.88 million workers at the end of the first quarter 2022.

When adding domestic workers to the family sector, which numbered about 780,000 workers, the total becomes about 2.85 million workers (2.49 million workers at the end of the first half of 2022, and the percentage of domestic workers is about 27.3 percent of the total employment in Kuwait as at the end of the first half of 2023 which is 24.5 percent of the total employment at the end of the first half of 2022.

According to statistics, the average monthly wage for Kuwaiti males in the government sector was about KD 1,929 (KD 1,888 at the end of the first half of 2022), and that rate for Kuwaiti females was about KD 1,350 (KD 1,318 at the end of the half quarter 2022), a difference of 42.9 percent in favor of male wages. The average monthly salary for non-Kuwaiti males in the government sector was about KD 787 (KD 784 at the end of the first half of 2022), and for non-Kuwaiti females, it reached about KD 698 (KD 698 at the end of the first half of 2022), with a difference in favor of males by about 12.7 percent, meaning that the gender difference is fairer in the case of non-Kuwaitis.

The average monthly wage for Kuwaitis of both sexes in the government sector is about KD 1,583 (KD 1,548 at the end of the first half of 2022), and the same rate for non-Kuwaitis was about KD 742 (KD 741 at the end of the first half of 2022), a difference between the two rates of 113.3 percent in favor of Kuwaitis.

The average monthly wage for Kuwaiti males in the private sector is about KD 1,589 (KD 1,567 at the end of the first half of 2022), which is about 17.6 percent lower than the average wage of males in the government sector. The average monthly wage of Kuwaiti females in the private sector is about KD 1,001 (KD 994 at the end of the first half of 2022), which is about 25.8 percent lower than the rate of their colleagues in the government sector.

The average monthly wage for non-Kuwaiti males in the private sector is about KD 305 (KD 309 at the end of the first half of 2022), which is about 38.8 percent of the level of their non-Kuwaiti colleagues in the government sector, and the average monthly wage for non-Kuwaiti females in the private sector is about KD 425 (KD 435 at the end of the first half of 2022), which is higher than the average wage of non-Kuwaiti males in the private sector by about 39.4 percent, but lower than the rate of their colleagues in the government sector.

In the event of a merger of the public and private sectors, the average monthly wage for Kuwaiti males is about KD 1,862 (KD 1823 at the end of the first half of 2022), and for Kuwaiti females about KD 1,304 (KD 1272 in the first half of the first quarter 2022), and the difference in favor of males widens to about 42.8 percent.