More Women Than Men Are Joining the Ksh100K Salary Club - KNBS Report

A new Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) report has revealed a sharp increase in female employees joining the league of Kenyans who earn over Ksh100,000 per month, despite men remaining more in the overall number of top earners.

The report released late in November indicates that 15,252 Kenyans joined the club of top earners in 2023. Out of this, 14,268 (92%) are women compared to 1,256 (8%) who are men.

As per the new report, this would mean that there are now 139,847 women in the league of top earners compared to 247,571 men, which showcases the male dominance in terms of holding the country’s top jobs in both corporate and government.

Women employees have often lagged behind on their road to joining the high earners club compared to male workers. For example, the KNBS report indicates that female employees with a six-figure salary dropped by just two workers, from 125,581 to 125,579 whereas for male workers, it rose from 233,183 to 246,315, a difference of 13,132.

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Meanwhile, the report titled Statistical Abstract 2024 revealed that women earning between Ksh50,000 and Ksh99,999 are 518,242 compared to 908,004 men, but women recorded the highest jump between the two genders, with 58,171 of them joining the high earners’ club compared to 460,071 women in 2022.

As for those earning between Ksh30,000 and Ksh49,999, 557,166 men are in this bracket compared to 455,334 women whereas there are 55,049 men and 36,060 women in the Ksh25,000 to Ksh29,999 pay category.

The Ksh0-9,999 category has 6,321 men and 5,741 women in 2023 compared to 6,289 men and 5,239 women in 2022, another case of more women than men.

In total, employees in the formal sector are 3,138,182, with men numbering slightly more than women. There are 1,871,034 men compared to 1,267,148 women in the formal sector.

With more women joining the top earners, this helps address issues of the gender pay gap in the formal sector. The United Nations (UN) revealed in March this year that despite progress in women’s economic and political participation, formal employment and education attainment, a gender pay gap remains a pervasive labour-market feature globally.

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The UN indicated that on a global scale, women earn only 73 cents for every Ksh150 earned by men. The gender gap is more frequently connected with higher levels of poverty among women, even though Kenya managed to reduce poverty rates from 36.5 per cent in 2005 to 27.2 per cent in 2019.

Meanwhile, 679,952 people are employed in the education sector, which covers all levels of education, from pre-primary to higher education, and includes educational support activities. The majority of them, 320,573, earn between Ksh50,000 and Ksh99,999.

Following education is the manufacturing sector employing 362,321 people. Of this, 188,177 earn between Ksh50,000 and Ksh99,999 while 116,077 earn between Ksh30,000 and Ksh49,999.

In third is the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector which covers agricultural activities such as growing beverage crops like coffee and tea, sugar cane cultivation, fibre crop production, mixed farming, livestock raising, and support activities for animal production. 

Here, 344,254 people are employed. Out of this, 118,860 people earn between Ksh30,000 and Ksh49,999 followed by 105,851 people earning between Ksh50,000 and Ksh99,999.

In terms of top earners from Ksh100,000 and above, the education sector led with 89,125 earners, followed by wholesale and retail (46,911), human health (39,643), and agriculture (35,144), with financial services and manufacturing having 32,941 and 30,491 top earners respectively.

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