More Indonesian Female Workers to Earn Below Minimum Wage in 2025

Data analysis by the Institute for Economic and Social Research, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia (LPEM FEB UI) showed that 38.9 million Indonesian workers were paid below the regency/city minimum wage (UMK) in 2025.

Of that number, approximately 23.6 million people were male workers, while 15.3 million were female.

The research team assessed that this finding could give the impression that wages below the UMK are a male worker issue. According to them, a reading based solely on absolute numbers risks obscuring more fundamental dimensions of inequality.

The researchers then expanded their study by including workers who reported wages above the UMK, totaling 26.9 million people.

The results showed that, among all workers covered in the data, the proportion of female workers paid below the UMK was higher, at 67.4% of the total who reported. Meanwhile, for males, it was 54.7%.

For workers paid above the UMK, males were more prevalent, at 45.3%. In contrast, females were only 32.6%.

"In other words, although the absolute number of female workers paid below the UMK is smaller, the relative risk faced by female workers is much higher," wrote the research team in the Labor Market Brief Volume 6 November 2025 report, published on December 31, 2025.

According to the research team, this finding reflects a still strong gender-based labor market segmentation. Male workers are more absorbed into sectors and job positions with better wage structures, including full-time employment in the formal sector and in medium and large-scale industries.

This also sufficiently explains that the proportion of male workers above the UMK is relatively larger, even though, in absolute terms, many are still below the minimum standard.

In contrast, female workers are more concentrated in jobs with characteristics less protected by minimum wage policies.

Part-time jobs, home-based work, and low-wage service sectors are some examples of job positions predominantly filled by women.

"In this context, the high proportion of women reporting wages below the UMK does not merely reflect low wage levels, but also limited access to full-time employment and job positions effectively covered by the UMK regime," said the research team.

The research team highlighted the prevailing narrative that female labor force participation is indeed low, but this does not fully describe the conditions of women who are already working. Even those who are employed face a greater risk of being paid below standard.

"Thus, the issue of gender in the context of minimum wage is not just about access to employment, but also about the quality and protection of available jobs," said the research team.

For information, this data was processed by LPEM FEB UI from the Ministry of Manpower (Kemenaker) and the February 2025 edition of Sakernas from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).