Pay disparity may be even bigger
|Published
Johannesburg - The difference in pay between women and men, thought to be 15 to 17 percent, could be even greater, researchers agreed today, because the informal sector is difficult to measure.
The results indicate the country’s legislation, which espouses the principle of equal pay for equal value, has not been achieved despite strides made over recent years in correcting gender imbalances.
“We don’t have a handle on pay disparities in the informal sector. The 15 to 17 percent pay gap could be the best situation, because pay disparity could be worse,” Penny Abbott, head of research at the SA Board for People Practices said.
Research by the University of Johannesburg this week suggests there is a 15 to 17 percent difference in pay between women and men.
It suggests that a South African woman would need to work two months more than a man to earn the equivalent salary that he would earn in a year.
The survey predominantly looked at private sector employers, with a sample of about one million employees.
It also pointed to public sector remuneration packages being more transparent and formalised at the higher levels of the state's pay grades, which lessened pay disparities between women and men.
However the 15 to 17 percent pay disparity did apply to state-owned companies, UJ professor Mark Bussin said.
Editor of the research, Anita Bosch, said gender disparities began at school-level, with girl pupils’ selection of school subjects, and trends in girls excluding themselves, or being prompted to exclude themselves, from certain occupations.
Underlying this was society's attachment of greater value to, for example, an engineer than to someone who takes care of people at home.
“For instance, many upper-income South Africans will have a domestic worker and a gardener, and we’ll ask why do gardeners earn more than a domestic worker,” Bosch said.
“If it’s equal value to equal pay, why are we doing that, perpetuating that? Those nuances are really carried over from generation to generation.”