The nation has made significant strides since apartheid towards equal pay for low-wage earners through the enactment of minimum wage regulations
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 workThe 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.
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. But at the top, despite having more years of education than men, women remain under-represented at senior levels and occupy jobs that are lower-paying. Mosomi’s paper found that more affluent and educated women were big beneficiaries of employment equity legislation and the gender wage gap dropped sharply from 48% in 1993 reaching 18% in 2014.
“Women who already had high-quality skills were able to benefit from employment equity legislation but once that effect had taken place, the trend began to reverse. Now, even though women have more education than men they receive lower returns,” she says.Mosomi says that the wage gap at the top does indicate discrimination but is also due to the type of work women do, which is often more administrative and less technical than occupations dominated by men.
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