The gender pay hole and inequality within the office persist in South Africa, with girls comprising simply 3% of chief govt positions at JSE-listed corporations and fewer than a 3rd of prime administration positions at non-public corporations.
That is in line with the brand new Catalytic Technique gender pay hole report which highlights disparities at work and vital gaps within the labour legislative framework on pay fairness. The research was compiled by human assets growth, information and analytics agency twenty first Century.
In response to the report launched on Wednesday, 40% of households in South Africa are led by girls with monetary duty for his or her households. However whereas girls tackle extra duty, together with for extended-family family members, solely 14% of ladies fall into the class of “prime earners”.
Feminine illustration throughout the non-public sector stays the bottom, with girls constituting solely 25.3% of prime administration positions, in contrast with 36.9% within the public sector, the report mentioned. They make up lower than 3% of the heads of corporations listed on the JSE.
Girls accounted for 43.4% of complete employment within the second quarter of 2021, whereas the labour drive participation charge for ladies stood at 54.3%, in contrast with 64.9 % for males.
The report is a “recent and well timed evaluation” of the historical past and extent of the gender pay hole within the labour system and the elements that allow its “insidious perpetuation”, former Fee for Gender Equality senior commissioner and lecturer within the legislation college on the College of Kwazulu-Natal Janine Hicks mentioned at its launch.
“The worth of this research lies in its distinctive evaluate of how the gender pay hole manifests itself in South Africa’s twin financial system, not solely within the formal sector however equally within the casual sector, and never solely within the public realm of the office however equally within the non-public realm of the family, the place the non-recognition of the financial worth and contribution of ladies’s unpaid labour persists,” she mentioned.
The report flags a “important want” for laws to standardise the measurement and reporting of the gender pay hole throughout all sectors.
A notable hole additionally exists within the recognition and quantification of unpaid work, which contributes considerably to the nationwide GDP however must be accounted for in financial insurance policies.
The research additionally highlighted a necessity for cohesion amongst present insurance policies that are carried out inconsistently. Laws, together with the Employment Fairness Act and the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, has didn’t adequately handle the complicated nature of gender-based disparities, the analysis discovered.
Hicks mentioned there was a chance to check the legislation in court docket as beneath the Employment Fairness Act, the gender wage hole has been recognized as an unfair labour apply.
“To pay girls much less for doing substantively the identical as their male counterparts is an unfair labour apply. We should always see corporations being taken to the labour court docket. We’ve laws. We preserve seeing these findings yr after yr, indicating that this hole persists,” she mentioned.
In response to the World Financial Discussion board’s International Gender Hole Report 2024, the world has closed 68.5% of the gender hole. Nevertheless, on the present tempo, it’s going to take one other 134 years — equal to 5 generations — to realize full gender parity.
“What they famous on this report is that we’re, in truth, 5 generations behind our [sustainable development goals] targets for 2035. We are able to’t wait 5 generations for issues to proceed and evolve the best way they’re evolving.
“I don’t consider we should always sit again and say that slowly, as girls grow to be extra empowered and step into the office, girls will progressively percolate up,” Hicks mentioned.
“I consider we’ve bought to take this by the horns. I’m a agency believer within the energy of the transformative nature of our Structure. We’ve particular provisions inside our Structure, in our equality clause, that allows legislative and different measures to advance individuals, or classes of individuals, deprived by unfair discrimination.”
As well as, the casual sector, the place many ladies are employed in precarious and low-paying jobs with out authorized safety, remained largely unaddressed in present insurance policies.
By bridging these gaps, substantial strides may very well be made in the direction of reaching gender equality, Catalytic Technique chairperson Religion Khanyile mentioned, including: “Our collective objective is to eradicate the fragmentation that plagues present gender insurance policies.”
Worldwide Girls’s Discussion board South Africa president Irene Charnley mentioned “systemic and unconscious bias” should be confronted to create a tradition of ladies empowerment and guarantee entry to jobs and advantages are equally accessible to them.