Onyi Nwaneri | CEO | Afrika Tikkun | mail me |
The gender pay gap is holding back African economies from unlocking their true potential. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread job losses globally, disproportionately affecting women more than men.
It is more urgent than ever to address the lack of gender equality on the African continent across all spheres of society. It is only fitting that we begin this urgent quest by paying women what they are worth and nothing less.
Devastating consequences for families
Achieving a completely equal society across gender and racial lines has proven to be a been a mammoth undertaking in South Africa. Despite improvements brought by the implementation of Section 6(4) of the Employment Equity Act, the goal of true equitable pay for all is yet to be reached as median gender pay gap has remained stagnant between 23% and 35%.
Closing this chasm between men and women in the workplace may take several decades according to the World Economic Forum which warns that yet another generation of women will still not see gender parity in its lifetime.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic means that the time it will take to close the global gender gap has increased from 99.5 years to 135.6 years.
Having more women out of the work-force could have devastating consequences for South African families. Paying women less than men for the same amount of work during a pandemic is equally a risk to economic stability given the role that women play in their communities as both nurturers and bread-winners.
Women in this country tend to bear the bulk of family responsibilities including providing income for daily needs, despite being paid less on average than men. Numerous studies have attested to the benefits of investing in the economic empowerment of women.
Although the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stated as far back as 2011 that women’s economic empowerment is a prerequisite to sustainable development, attitudes around women in the workplace continue to hamper the potential for an equal society which benefits all people.
Changing the attitudes
The African Union’s Agenda 2063 places women and girls at the centre of economic development and calls for a more inclusive and equal society.
International Equal Pay Day 2021 should be about changing the attitudes which people have been socialised to adopt around the value of a woman’s work. It is high time that the socialisation of men and women becomes aligned with these goals in order to end the patriarchal ideas and practices behind the gender pay gap.
This begins at school level where girls have been less likely to take on STEM subjects such as maths, science and computer studies, which have traditionally been geared towards higher paying jobs. It also begins with the patriarchal mentality that women’s labour is worth less than that of men.
According to the Quarterly Labour Force Survey of the 2nd quarter of 2021, the South African labour market is more favourable to men than it is to women. This trend cuts across racial lines. Men are more likely to be in paid employment than women regardless of race, while women are more likely than men to be doing unpaid work. This data paints a worrying picture of attitudes on the value of women’s labour compared to that of men.
It is disheartening that in 2021 the idea of paying women the same as men for same amount of work has not materialised in the current workforce. It will take a collective effort by all spheres of society including those tasked with enforcing the law, to achieve the ultimate goal of inclusive labour practices that don’t discriminate based on gender, race or any other demographic.
Despite a world-renowned constitution which promotes an equal society, South Africa is ranked 131st in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2021 when it comes to equal pay for men and women.
The International Labour Organisation has warned that the global jobs crisis brought on by COVID-19 is hampering progress towards gender equality.
In conclusion
In South Africa, the rate of unemployment among women was 36,8% in the 2nd quarter of 2021 compared to 32,4% amongst men, according to Statistics South Africa. This is in the backdrop of an unmoving gender wage gap.
According to the ILO in 2017, the median gap was 28.8% based on hourly wages, and 30.3% based on monthly earnings.
Tackling unequal pay in South Africa requires an understanding of the country’s triple threat of unemployment, inequality and poverty. As one of the most unequal societies in the world, South Africa boasts five dollar billionaires and 125,000 dollar millionaires, most of whom are men.
So even the richest among women suffer from unequal pay. In contrast, South Africa has some of the lowest paying jobs in the world with a National Minimum Wage of just R21,69 an hour. It is thus more important than ever that those women who do find employment are paid equitably.
