Work & income · Panama
The pay ladder in Panama
Managers earn $3,669 a month and elementary occupations earn $904 — 4.1× 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. 9 of the ten ISCO-08 occupation groups are published for Panama; latest year 2025.
| Occupation group | Monthly | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Managers | $3,669 | 5 % | |
| Professionals | $3,293 | 7 % | |
| Technicians | $2,182 | 9 % | |
| Machine operators | $1,670 | 20 % | |
| Clerical support | $1,655 | 5 % | |
| Craft and trades | $1,463 | 19 % | |
| Service and sales | $1,380 | 34 % | |
| Agriculture and fishing | $1,051 | — | |
| Elementary occupations | $904 | 3 % |
How steep is Panama?
The distance from the best-paid group to the worst-paid is 4.1×, which makes Panama steeper than 62 of the 99 countries with a full ladder and flatter than 36. 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.
Where the gap between men and women is widest
In Panama it is widest among service and sales at 34 % — men $1,658 against women $1,095 — and narrowest among elementary occupations at 3 %. 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.