Pakistan and India are both estimated by the Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicators (WWBI) to have the largest public sectors in the South Asian region, accounting for 60 percent of formal wage employment.

It is a unique cross-national dataset on public sector employment and wages developed by the World Bank’s Bureaucracy Lab.

In South Asian countries, wages are on average seven percentage points lower than the global average of 28 per cent based on the indicators. According to the report, there are significant differences among countries in the region.

Pakistan spends only three percent of its public expenditures on public sector wages, which make up half of all public spending in Afghanistan.

Public administration accounts for 37 percent of the South Asian government workforce

There are 37 percent of public sector workers in South Asia employed in public administration, followed by 28 percent in healthcare, and 26 percent in education.

In South Asia, education and healthcare employees are less likely to be employed in the public sector than in the global average. Education employees make up around 35 percent of the public sector workforce in Pakistan.

Women work in the public sector at 46 percent globally, but at 24 percent in South Asia. Yet the share varies significantly from region to region.

In the Maldives, half of all public sector workers are women, while in Afghanistan and Pakistan, only 13 percent of employees are women.

The percentage of female public administration workers in Pakistan is only 2 percent.

Public sector employees in the region earn higher average wages than private sector employees.

Pakistani public sector employees have the highest wage premium compared to their private sector counterparts (over 60 per cent), followed by Sri Lankans (54 per cent) and Nepalese (40 per cent). Afghanistan, however, penalizes public sector employees (around 20%).

Nearly all individuals employed in public sector institutions in South Asia enjoy a wage premium over all formal wage employees.

In the region, India has the highest average pay for public sector jobs. There is a 2.6-to-1 pay gap between government economists and hospital nurses.

Around the world, 16 percent of total employment is in the public sector, 30 percent is wage employment, and 37 percent is wage employment in the formal sector.

Around 12 percent of the total employment in South Asia comes from the public sector, 30 percent from wage employment, and 39 percent from formal wage employment