FIGURE 2.4 Across all country income groups, people with wage employment in the public sector are more likely than those in the private sector to receive their wages through direct deposit into an account (figure 2.4). In developing economies two-thirds of adults with wage employment in the public sector reported receiving their wages this way, while only a third of those in the private sector did so. This difference generally narrows with rising income levels, but it exists even in high-income economies, where the share who reported receiving their wages into an account was more than 90 percent among wage earners in the public sector but 84 percent among those in the private sector.

Public and private sector wage earners and how they receive wage payments across country income groups <!-- Start of picture text --> Adults receiving public or private sector wages in the past year, by method<br>(as % of all adults), 2014<br>Public sector 40<br>Private sector Using other method<br>In cash only<br>30<br>Into an account<br>18<br>12 12<br>4 4 5<br>Low income Lower Upper High income<br>middle income middle income<br>Source: Global Findex database.<br><!-- End of picture text --> Wage employment can be an important factor in opening an account. In developing economies about a third of adults who reported receiving wages into an account said that this account was their first one and was opened specifically so that they could receive wage payments from their employer.

Indeed, both globally and across all regions, wage earners are more likely to have an account. Worldwide, almost 81 percent of adults who reported receiving wages in the past 12 months also reported having an account, compared with only about 53 percent of those not receiving wages. The gap in account ownership is especially wide in Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa: in these regions adults receiving wages were about 35 percentage points more likely than those not receiving wages to report having an account. In the Middle East adults receiving wages were four times as likely as those not receiving them to report having an account. Globally, 35 million adults without an account receive government wages in cash only, and 280 million receive private sector wages this way.

Among those receiving wage payments into an account, the overwhelming majority indicated that they use this account for cash management purposes—rather than withdraw all the money at once, they use the account as a safe place to store the money and withdraw or transfer it over time as needed. While it is no surprise that more than 90 percent of adults receiving wage payments into an account in high-income OECD economies follow this practice, it is notable that three-quarters of those in developing economies do so. But household income matters: among adults in developing economies who reported receiving wage payments into an account, 77 percent of those in the richest 60 percent of households reported withdrawing the money over time as needed, compared with 65 percent of those in the poorest 40 percent of households. Men and women were about equally likely to report withdrawing the money over time as needed.

> THE GLOBAL FINDEX DATABASE 31