From the news desk

Govt must address gender wage gap

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South Africa has a vast gender wage gap where women earn 35% less than men in similar work positions. According to statistics published recently, South Africa has an overall gender gap of 25%, as measured by economic participation and opportunity, education, health and political empowerment, yet its gender pay gap remains static at 35%.

The gender wage gap is calculated by using male earnings as a benchmark. The most current statistic suggests that women earn in a year what a man would earn in eight months.

“The patriarchal system has contributed significantly to the wage gap between men and women and in South Africa. The patriarchal system mixed with South Africa’s history has been major contributors,” Patrick Godana of Sonke Gender Justice explained.

According to Godana, another contributing factor may include the education system, which historically has given preference to a particular race and a particular gender.

“BEE at face value indicates that the key executives are men,” Godana noted.

In South Africa, the issue of race is prevalent when discussing the gender wage gap as this is one of the major issues being tackled by Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment. BBBEE was implemented by government and companies in order to decrease the race as well as gender gap within companies, however it has mainly served as a mechanism to decrease the race gap.

“In South Africa, women are not well represented at senior levels, only a few individuals stand out,” Godana explained.

“There must a deliberate attempt by companies to move forward and close the gender wage gap by appointing women in senior positions.”

This could also be due to the fact that women have family obligations to fulfil and women have not separated themselves from the role of caregiver of the family.

South Africa does not have strong legislation that enforces companies to give men and women equal remuneration. However many professional service firms practice equality in the payment structure between both genders.

According to Godana, government is in the process of implementing acts that would further decrease the gender wage gap in South Africa. VOC (Umarah Hartley)


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