Money matters: 5 key insights from the Gender Pay Gap Report
The Catalytic Strategy’s Gender Pay Report states that unequal pay keeps most South African women in poverty.
With the country’s official unemployment rate at 33.5%, women in South Africa bear a greater share of the social burden of joblessness compared to men.
Women make up 51% of the population. But, from the corridors of corporate and public power to the informal sector and the home, women face more barriers and obstacles to earning potential.
More education, less money
The South African has previously reported how women run 42% of households in the country, with most being the sole breadwinners in multigenerational homes.
Although women are better educated and out-perform men academically, this does not translate into better opportunities in the workplace or greater labour market participation.
At the highest level of the career ladder, women make up 3% of CEOs among Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)-listed companies.
Women working in government or for public sector entities are more likely to land high-ranking jobs than in the private sector. As many as 36.9% of women occupy top management positions in the public sector while only 25.3% do so in the private sector.
Men on top
South Africa’s formal sector is responsible for 69.1% of employment and the informal economy fills the rest.
The estimated median wage for educated women is R50,000 and that of men with the same level of academic attainment R60,000.
‘Unconscious bias’
Catalytic Strategy chair Faith Khanyile, who is also a member of the International Women’s Forum (IWF) South Africa, said: “Our collective goal is to eradicate the fragmentation that currently plagues gender policies.”
The IWF South Africa and WDH Investment Holdings founded the Women’s Economic Justice Catalytic Strategy to research women’s economic justice.
The Catalytic Strategy joint partners commissioned the report, which was compiled by 21st Century with support from the JSE and Anglo American South Africa.
According to Catalytic Strategy patron Irene Charnley: “To ensure that access to jobs and benefits is equally available to women, we need to address unconscious bias.” Charnley is also an IWF Global board member.
Dual economy
University of KwaZulu-Natal senior academic Dr Janine Hicks believes the report highlights the many ways the gender pay gap shows up in the formal and informal economy.
There are more women in the informal sector, where survivalist activities, such as hawking, dominate, than men. In the home, too, women are caregivers, looking after children and the aged without pay, while men are at work earning.
Pay penalty
Women incur both a motherhood and gender penalty.
When women leave work to tend to their babies, they face an uphill battle making it back into formal employment. This undercuts their earning potential.
Whereas men, no matter their education level, are more likely to be in paid employment with benefits, including retirement, women are not.
In instances where women enjoy employment retirement benefits, their total contributions at the end of their working lives amount to less than those of men.