SA’s gender pay gap shrinks dramatically
But inequalities still high in the top-end jobs and there has been no improvement in the median wage spectrum jobs that include elementary, service, craft or operational work
The gender pay gap has shrunk dramatically, especially among low paid workers since the end of apartheid but women at the top still face discrimination, a study by a University of Cape Town researcher has found. In 1997, at the bottom end of the earnings spectrum, men earned 60% more than women. By 2014 this had diminished to 7%, said economist Jacqueline Mosomi in a paper based on her PhD thesis, published by the UN’s University World Institute for Development Economics Research. The change is mostly attributable to the implementation of new minimum wages. Minimum wages for domestic and farm workers were introduced in November 2002. Women have also had better access to education since democracy, and marriage and fertility rates have declined. “In general, in SA gender wage inequality was high because there were more women in low-paying occupations. There has been a substantial decline due to the implementation of minimum wages,” said Mosomi. But at the top, despite having more y...
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