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Women earning less than men

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A RECENT survey commissioned by a human resources firm CV People Africa (CPA) has revealed that women continue to earn less than their male counterparts despite campaigns by women’s pressure organisations and the government to bolster gender equality at the work place.

A RECENT survey commissioned by a human resources firm CV People Africa (CPA) has revealed that women continue to earn less than their male counterparts despite campaigns by women’s pressure organisations and the government to bolster gender equality at the work place.

By Staff Reporter

The survey, jointly conducted by CPA and Datasol Zimbabwe revealed a glaring 19,4% gender pay gap.

Marcie Nyashanu, a salary survey consultant for CPA, said women continued to receive lower salaries than men even those doing similar jobs.

“The average salary for a Zimbabwean male is $1 400 whereas the women average $1 100 across all sectors. This translates into an annual pay gap of $3 500 and begs to ask the question why women should get paid less and why Zimbabwe is lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of narrowing this gap,” she said.

Nyashanu said their survey also revealed that this gap widened among those with higher educational qualifications.

“The more educated/qualified an individual becomes, the wider the gap grows. The gender pay gap at secondary is $92 and grows to $308 for diploma and a whopping $564 at a postgraduate level in favour of men,” she said.

Gender and communications specialist Lucy Mazingi attributed the discrepancy to women’s preference for lower wage jobs.

“Male-dominated occupations tend to pay more than female-dominated occupations. Many occupations that are traditionally held by men are high-wage, high-growth jobs like manufacturing and production and mining. Women are more likely to work in low-wage pink-collar jobs such as administration, tourism, teaching, childcare and nursing, thus fuelling the gender wage gap,” Mazingi said.

Memory Kachambwa, an independent gender and development consultant, said the government needed to implement policy changes in order to close the wage gap.

“The gap will take time to close and this requires policy changes and interventions. As long as women lag behind in training in technical and managerial courses which are more paying, their chances of entering in those fields and breaking the glass ceiling will be low,” she said.