Get It Off Your Chest

South Africa's gender pay gap stands at approximately 12% in the formal sector, with recent research finding that roughly 45% of this gap is linked to women being concentrated in lower-paying companies and industries. While men remain more represented in higher-paying sectors such as mining, construction and manufacturing, women are more concentrated in education, retail, personal services and care-related work. Add unpaid domestic and care responsibilities to the equation and the barriers to equal pay become even more complex and deeply structural.

The proposed Fair Pay Bill, introduced by BOSA as a private member's bill, seeks to prohibit employers from using salary history to determine remuneration, require salary ranges to be disclosed in job advertisements and strengthen equal pay for work of equal value. While the bill is currently a proposal and not yet law, it has opened an important public participation process and put the conversation firmly on the political agenda ahead of the local government elections.

Professor Simphiwe Madikizela, Economic Analyst and Senior Lecturer at the UNISA Graduate School of Business and Leadership, joins the show to unpack what the gender pay gap really means for South African women, what the Fair Pay Bill could change and what voters should be asking political parties about pay transparency, childcare, skills development and equal pay enforcement as election season approaches.