Work & income · Kenya
The pay ladder in Kenya
Armed forces earn $1,665 a month and agriculture and fishing earn $103 — 16.1× from the top of the ladder to the bottom.
Mean gross monthly earnings in PPP dollars, so the figures say what the money buys locally rather than what it converts to. All ten ISCO-08 occupation groups are published for Kenya; latest year 2019.
| Occupation group | Monthly | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Armed forces | $1,665 | -135 % | |
| Managers | $1,354 | 21 % | |
| Professionals | $726 | 25 % | |
| Technicians | $644 | -9 % | |
| Clerical support | $586 | 12 % | |
| Machine operators | $308 | 51 % | |
| Service and sales | $284 | 24 % | |
| Craft and trades | $195 | -87 % | |
| Elementary occupations | $111 | 29 % | |
| Agriculture and fishing | $103 | 56 % |
How steep is Kenya?
The distance from the best-paid group to the worst-paid is 16.1×, which makes Kenya steeper than 97 of the 99 countries with a full ladder and flatter than 1. That ratio is the part a national average cannot tell you: two countries can share an average wage and have entirely different ladders beneath it.
What is unusual here
Armed forces sit 2 places higher up Kenya's ladder than they do in most countries, at $1,665 a month. Compared against where the same group lands across all 99 ladders — not against an assumption about which work ought to pay well.
Where the gap between men and women is widest
In Kenya it is widest among agriculture and fishing at 56 % — men $138 against women $61 — and narrowest among armed forces at -135 %. The gap is measured within each occupation group, so it is not explained away by men and women doing different kinds of work.
What these groups are, and are not
These are the ISCO-08 major groups, the finest breakdown published across countries. “Professionals” covers doctors, engineers and teachers together; “elementary occupations” covers cleaning, portering and labouring. There is no figure here for an individual job title, and we would rather say so than estimate one.
Ladders to compare it with
Source: ILO, mean nominal monthly earnings of employees by occupation (EAR_EMTA). Mean gross monthly earnings, PPP international dollars, both sexes. ISCO-08 major groups (one digit — the deepest ILO publishes). Latest available year per group; snapshot taken 2026-08-14.