Rising income gap in Uzbekistan leaves two-thirds of workforce behind average wage growth

While this substantial increase represents a major economic milestone, these aggregated figures do not fully capture the reality of the domestic labor market. The official average calculation excludes small enterprises and agricultural businesses, where salaries are traditionally lower. According to the latest data, Uzbekistan’s total employed population stands at 14,934,000 people. Out of this workforce, 21% – or 3,132,000 individuals – are employed in the agricultural sector, where the average monthly wage is a modest UZS 3,506,000. If the income of the entire employed population were factored into the national calculation, the actual average wage would be noticeably lower.

The National Statistics Committee tracks quarterly adjustments across 19 distinct economic activities. An analysis of the data from the first quarters of 2022 through 2026 reveals that real estate professionals experienced the fastest salary growth, with their average income increasing 2.8 times. Public administration and defense employees followed with a 2.6-fold increase, while the information and communication sector registered a 2.5-fold rise.

Conversely, income growth lagged considerably in sectors like construction, mining, and agriculture, which grew by only 54%, 64%, and 64% respectively. Other critical areas also failed to match the national baseline growth, including manufacturing (+76%), healthcare (+77%), education (+83%), arts and entertainment (+89%), and wholesale and retail trade (+99.4%). Approximately 10,011,200 people are employed across these slower-growing sectors. This means that roughly 67%, or two-thirds, of the country's total workforce experienced wage growth that fell short of the national average to varying degrees.

This widening disparity presents concrete economic challenges. High or rapidly accelerating inflation hits low-income populations the hardest. In developing nations like Uzbekistan, lower-income households spend the vast majority of their earnings on primary consumer goods, including food, medicine, utilities, and transport.

During the four-year period analyzed, overall inflation reached 42%. While this figure appears lower than the wage growth in all monitored sectors, the prices of staple items like meat, eggs, water, electricity, gas, and fuels surged at rates far exceeding general inflation. Food price inflation has remained consistently elevated for years. Consequently, a low-income individual who allocates up to 60% of their earnings to food feels the squeeze of inflation much more acutely than a high–income individual who spends only 20% of their budget on food. This reality directly erodes actual purchasing power despite on-paper salary increases.

For instance, at the end of the first quarter of 2022, the average salary in the education sector amounted to 73.5% of the national average, while healthcare stood at 68%. By the first quarter of 2026, these ratios compressed to 67.6% and 60.2% respectively. To illustrate the widening divide, the average salary in the reinsurance sector is now 9.8 times higher than that of a preschool educator, compared to a gap of 5.9 times just four years ago.

The decline in purchasing power among lower-income households carries macro-economic risks. When families have no disposable income left after buying food, retail sales for secondary goods like clothing, household appliances, and various commercial services slow down, dragging manufacturing and retail sectors into stagnation. Furthermore, the relative drop in real income acts as an incentive for citizens to take out consumer loans and microcredits to cover everyday necessities, an increasing debt burden that ultimately strains living conditions.

It is also worth noting that because the shadow economy still holds a sizable share in Uzbekistan, the gap between official paperwork and actual take-home pay in several fields may remain substantial.