Work & incomeUruguay
Average monthly salary in Uruguay
What does a month of average work pay, in what it buys?
Uruguay's average monthly salary is $1,636 PPP/mo — #52 of 92 countries on the atlas (higher is better). Period 2024.
$1,636PPP/mo
Source: ILO monthly earnings of employees (EAR_EMTA mean + EAR_EMTM median)
The average employee in Uruguay earns about $1,636 a month before tax, measured in dollars adjusted for what they buy locally.
Among 92 countries
- Rank
- #52 of 92
- higher is better
- Ranked behind
- 43 %
- 40 of 92 countries
In Americas: #6 of 19vs median $1,986 PPP/mo: −18 % (worse)
What the average is made of
A national average hides the spread beneath it. In Uruguay the best-paid occupation group earns $4,601 a month and the worst-paid $899 — 5.1× from top to bottom, which is 78 of 99 countries on that spread.
| Occupation group | Monthly | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Managerschief executives, senior officials, and managers in production, sales, hospitality and retail | $4,601 | 21 % | |
| Professionalsdoctors, nurses, teachers, engineers, lawyers, accountants, software developers, scientists | $2,566 | 23 % | |
| Technicianstechnicians in engineering and health, financial and sales agents, IT support | $2,168 | 19 % | |
| Clerical supportoffice clerks, secretaries, tellers, receptionists, records and stores clerks | $1,700 | 11 % | |
| Craft and tradesbuilders, electricians, plumbers, welders, mechanics, printers, food processors | $1,644 | 32 % | |
| Machine operatorsmachine operators, assemblers, drivers of lorries, buses, trains and taxis | $1,643 | 23 % | |
| Armed forcescommissioned officers, non-commissioned officers, other ranks | $1,552 | 34 % | |
| Agriculture and fishingfarmers, forestry workers, fishermen, hunters | $1,299 | 19 % | |
| Service and salesshop assistants, cooks, waiters, hairdressers, carers, police and firefighters | $1,162 | 28 % | |
| Elementary occupationscleaners, labourers, kitchen helpers, refuse workers, delivery staff | $899 | 26 % |
Armed forces sit 4 places lower up Uruguay's ladder than they do in most countries — measured against where the same group lands across every country ILO publishes, not against an assumption about which work ought to pay well.
These are ISCO-08 major groups, the finest breakdown published across countries. The figure for a group is the average across everything inside it, so it is not the pay for any one of the jobs named — where we hold job-title figures, they are on their own pages. The full ladder for Uruguay →
The neighbourhood
| # | Country | Monthly earnings | vs Uruguay |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | Mongolia | $1,683 PPP/mo | +$47 PPP/mo |
| 51 | Azerbaijan | $1,649 PPP/mo | +$13 PPP/mo |
| 52 | Uruguay | $1,636 PPP/mo | — |
| 53 | Mauritius | $1,629 PPP/mo | −$7 PPP/mo |
| 54 | Thailand | $1,574 PPP/mo | −$62 PPP/mo |
Mean monthly earnings of employees in PPP international dollars (ILO). Reaches 91 countries where the OECD average wage reaches 38 — a different collection and a monthly figure, so it is its own field rather than an extension of that one.
How to read this figure
Mean monthly earnings of employees from the ILO, in PPP international dollars — gross, before tax, main job, full-time and part-time workers together, both sexes. This is the wage field that reaches beyond the OECD: 91 countries against the average wage’s 38. It is not the same figure as the OECD average salary and should not be multiplied by twelve to compare with it — different collection, different population, and the ILO series is a mean of whatever employment the national source covers.