HR Pulse

Despite ‘world class’ legal provisions, gender pay parity still an issue

Researchers say that South Africa has a legislative framework to ensure gender pay parity, but there is little appetite to enforce it in the private and public sector.

Researchers at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) teamed up with the SA Board for People Practices (SABPP) and examined pay parity in the public and private sectors. According to Statistics SA, women are 51.2% of the population and account for 45.1% of the country’s workforce, but they earn 15% to 17% less for doing the same work as men.

Researcher Prof Mark Bussin commented that the pay gap means that, of the about 200 working days in a year, women are unpaid for 30 to 40 days. The gender parity gap results in a loss of income over women’s working lives, which translates into pension contribution losses. But, Bussin says the solution to this problem does not lie in promulgating more legislation as SA’s existing laws addressing gender inequality are world class. The solution to pay inequality, Bussin says, lies with the Department of Labour enforcing the law more efficiently and for companies to "do their bit".

The other solution is for women to be more proactive and not let societal standards determine how much they earn or the kind of positions they can hold in a company. Prof Anita Bosch, author of the SABPP’s Women’s Report 2015, says HR practitioners have a big role to play in narrowing the pay gap between men and women, as they are involved in hiring and are strategic advisers to employers on hiring practices and salaries.