LABOUR

THE GENDER PAY GAP

AND WHY IT MATTERS

FÉBÉ POTGIETER, ANC General Manager, unpacks the Gender Gap Report and the startling statistics on how far away we still are to achieving gender parity in every sphere of life

THE LONG MARCH TO GENDER EQUALITY

Nearly 130 years after women first gained universal suffrage in New Zealand, the latest World Economic Forum informed us that we should add another generation to the 99.5 years it will take, at current pace of change, for the world to reach full gender parity (Figure 1). The WEF annual Gender Gap Report measures gender parity across three areas: political empowerment; economic participation and opportunity; and educational attainment and health and survival. According to the survey of 156 countries globally, the gender gap is closing in the area of women and girls’ education –it will take just another 14.5 years for educational equality in access and outcomes to be achieved. The gender gap in terms of health has been closed, although there are variations across race, geography and income levels.

However, when it comes to political empowerment and economic participation and opportunity, at the current rate of progress, it will take another 145 years for

gender parity in politics to be reached, and another 267 years (yes, nearly another three centuries!) for the economic gender gap to be closed. Among the reasons for this slow progress in women’s economic emancipation has to do with constraints on women’s labour market participation, the persistence of income inequalities, including the gender pay gap and slow progress with women in economic leadership positions. Despite growing numbers of women in the professional ranks, as witnessed by the closing educational gap, women in labour markets globally are mainly found in the informal sector, in agriculture, in atypical employment and in services and sales sectors. Moreover, women’s unpaid labour to society (childbearing and care, housework) are still not recognised, and family responsibilities are still not shared equally between the sexes.

THE GENDER PAY GAP

The gender pay gap refers to the difference between what men and women earn, for the same work or work of equal value. It is among the key reasons, next to gendered asset inequality, that continue to inhibit women’s economic emancipation. Globally, women continue to earn on average 20% less than men; in South Africa they earn between 25% and 35% less than their male counterparts for the same work or work of equal value. In a country where over 37% of households are female headed, this gap contributes to household poverty and the feminisation of poverty. As a result, female-headed households are around 40% poorer than households headed by men, even though, according to Bosch and Birat (2020), 48.2% of femaleheaded households support extended family members, in comparison to 23.1% of maleheaded households doing the same. Across the world, there are a number of trends relevant to South Africa, say Dias, Joyce and Parodi (2018). Firstly, the gender pay gap is falling in lower paid categories, but not among professional women, due to collective bargaining by trade unions. Secondly, even though men and women may earn closer to the same wages at entry levels, the gender pay gap becomes wider in the late 20s and 30s. “Men’s wages tend to continue growing rapidly at this point in the life cycle (particularly for the higheducated), while women’s wages plateau.” Third, the late 20s to 30s tend to be prime childbearing ages for women, and as soon as they have children, the wage gap and experience gap between men and women widen. Having children at any age has little bearing on male career progression, since women are still forced to take primary responsibility for children. What do we as a society do to address this situation? The literature suggests the following approaches: - Advocacy and education about the Gender Pay Gap, in society, in workplaces, within professional associations and trade unions. It should be explained and challenged as not being “the natural order of things”. - Gender aggregation of wage information as part of employment equity reporting, so that there is transparency about the gender wage gap. Because of the confi dentiality/ secrecy around salaries and wages, especially at professional levels, companies and institutions get away with paying women much less than men, for doing the same work or work of equal value. - Increasingly there are calls for policy and legislation to make paying men and women less for the same work illegal, which means that women can take an employer to the CCMA or Labour Court for this kind of discrimination. Women workers and professionals already are forced to do double shifts at work and unpaid labour at home and in families. We should not as a society tolerate that they get paid less, simply because they are women.

FÉBÉ POTGIETER

ANC GENERAL MANAGER