HRI
diamond partner
Mind the pay gap Mercer’s Carla Daniels says closing the pay gap is much more than complying with legislation.
P
BY JANE STEINACKER
ay equity is about driving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), but at the current rate it will take over 135 years to achieve pay parity across the globe. And South Africa does not have much to boast about.
“South Africa is one of the most inequitable countries in the world,” says Carla Daniels, consulting lead at Mercer South Africa. She says that not only do South Africans have a large income parity gap, but that it mostly affects women.
households are headed by women. She says that the cycle of poverty can be broken if pay equality is heeded by employers. “We believe that organisations should be proactive and be doing more, and that legislation need not be the driver,” says Carla. She says that Mercer, a prominent global consulting firm, is encouraging companies to take ownership of their pay transparency journey.
“On average, women in South Africa are paid about 30 percent less than men, and the needle hasn’t moved in the past two decades,” says Carla.
Many companies are showing resistance, however. They say they believe that being transparent about pay policies in their business comes with a risk of employee dissatisfaction, decreased productivity, and a potentially negative effect on employee engagement.
She adds that South Africa has one of the highest representations of women in politics in the world, but that the agenda of ensuring that inequality in pay is not being driven as it should be, especially in a country where many
Carla believes that the opposite will be true: that companies that embrace pay transparency to close pay gaps will start seeing an organisational shift towards a more positive and productive environment.
40
