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Women remain constrained by persistent pay gulf
View(s):By Minaza Hassan
Despite decades of progress in women’s education and in the workforce, gender disparities in pay and participation in the workforce remain deeply entrenched.
The gap between what men and women earn for their labour continues to raise questions about fairness, structural inequality, and the true value placed on women’s work in Sri Lanka.
Although data may suggest sometimes that the gender pay gap is relatively narrow, Professor Dileni Gunewardena from the department of economics and statistics at the Peradeniya University, and who worked with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on the Gender Pay Gap (GPG) report in 2024, clarified that “the size of the pay gap underestimates what is actually going on.”
While the average man tends to reflect the broader male population, the average woman who is working does not. She is either earning a very high income or a very low income. The wage gap is therefore obfuscated, said Prof. Gunewardena.
For this reason, the ILO implemented a factor-weighted wage gap methodology which took various factors into account.
For every rupee a man earns, a woman earns 73 cents. The report from the ILO revealed the persistence of the gender pay gap (GPG), which is at 27% in Sri Lanka, which is higher than the global average of 20%. Additionally, it highlighted that gender participation disparities widen with age, and older women tend to leave the workforce to assume household responsibilities.
When you take the average male wage and the average female wage, it looks like there isn’t much of a gap; however, if you compare a domestic worker and a casual labourer, you may see a notable gap, Prof. Gunewardena explained.
This gap can be observed specifically in the informal sectors. However, even within the formal sector, women encounter significant barriers, including being overlooked for promotions despite equal qualifications as their male counterparts. Employers often perceive household responsibilities as a hindrance, leading to biased hiring practices against women, said Prof. Gunewardena.
Gendered expectations in the informal labour market also reinforce unequal pay even when the women are in high demand. For instance, when employers try to hire men for the same job when women are unavailable, they are faced with resistance, as the men expect to be paid more than the women for the same role. This becomes a customary practice. This happens in the casual labour economy, which is often unregulated, said Prof. Gunewardena.
Women are concentrated in certain types of jobs that are undervalued and underpaid. Occupational segregation helps mask wage inequality, as there is no benchmark for comparison, Prof. Gunewardena said.
“When we talk about GPG, quite often we think that it should be about paying the same wages. A good example to illustrate that this is inadequate is to look at the plantation sector, where wages for workers were equalised 15 years ago; however, the women worked longer hours,” said Dr. Sepali Kottegoda, Director of Programmes, Women’s Economic Rights and Media of the Women and Media Collective.
Furthermore, the obstacles women face in reaching the necessary pay grades must be acknowledged and addressed as well, Dr. Kottegoda said.
Although a large portion of estate workers are women, when appointing supervisors and other senior roles, women do not even have a 1% chance of getting appointed, said Ceylon Estate Staffs’ Union’s General Secretary Chatura Samarasinghe, highlighting the broader and structural issues that lead to the GPG.
The few women that hold senior positions among estate staff still do not hold any significant authority; they are often relegated to roles such as medical staff, said Mr. Samarasinghe. Even estate worker supervisors are men.
There is extremely limited opportunity for women to contribute to decisions that affect a significant portion of them, he said.
As there is such low female representation on all levels, there is no one even in unions to acknowledge and address their grievances. Many women are also influenced by culture and society and lack awareness of their rights to fight for them, said Mr. Samarasinghe.
Additionally, they do not have the time for unions or to work towards their rights on top of their household duties in addition to work, Mr Samarasinghe said.
In the plantation sector, wages for workers were equalised 15 years ago; however, the women worked longer hours. Pix by Priyankara Samaraweera
Many educated women are often not in a position to contribute to the workforce due to structural, social and cultural barriers, said Labour Minister Anil Jayantha Fernando.
Sri Lanka’s Wages Board Ordinance provides a mechanism to ensure that fair wages are provided to workers. However, its practical impact has been limited.
State workers struggle to increase their daily salaries beyond Rs.1,700, Mr Fernando said, speaking in a broader context.
Wage boards tend to determine standards based on the conditions in the sector and their bargaining power, rather than on what a worker needs to lead a decent life, he explained.
This disproportionately affects women, once again due to low representation and low bargaining powers.
For a long time, issues pertaining to labour have been met with partial solutions. It is complex. However, on a global level, things are progressing, and there are internationally developed guidelines and benchmarks for public discourse, and issues such as GPG can be addressed, Mr Fernando said.
According to ILO’s Equal Remuneration Convention, which has been ratified by Sri Lanka, member states must promote equal remuneration for work of equal value. Aligning with this, the Women’s Charter specifies that the state shall take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in public and private sectors. However, enforcement to ensure ILO standards on equal remuneration has still not been met.
Sri Lanka’s Industrial Disputes Act provides platforms for redress through industrial courts and labour tribunals in instances of disputes. However, the Wages Board Ordinance does not address the GPG or the structural barriers in relation to fair wages for women.
Lack of awareness of GPG combined with the lack of domestic laws that enforce equal remuneration may only provide space for the GPG to grow.
‘People do not know they can ask for wage data to be analysed and that it can be fought in a court of law,’ said Prof. Gunewardena.
| Maternity and paternity leave Discourses regarding state-sponsored maternity benefits have provided conflicting opinions. Maternity benefits draw diverse responses. Maternity benefits are a double-edged sword. Employers can be reluctant to hire women due to it, which can leave women disadvantaged, said Prof. Dileni Gunewardena. Some proposals in relation to state-sponsored maternity benefits have already come in; however, instead of isolating responsibility to the state or the employer, maternity benefits must be viewed through a value generation lens (what each stakeholder in the production process can contribute without being overburdened) and take a collaborative approach, said Labour Minister Anil Fernando. Sri Lanka’s Maternity Benefits Ordinance specifies that a woman may take up to 12 weeks of maternity leave depending on the number of children that she has. An employer is legally required to pay the maternity benefit at the prescribed rate. (The ILO’s Maternity Protection Convention requires a standard 14 weeks.) However, the gendered nature of maternity leaves and traditional and cultural norms that relegate women as the primary caretakers can be addressed through paternity leaves as well. This has been done by John Keells Group, where 100 days of equal maternity and paternity leave were introduced in 2022. Similarly, the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention of the ILO mandates policies such as shared parental leave. Sri Lanka has not ratified it. “It is crucial for both parents to be with the child, and although paternity leaves would be ideal, certain mechanisms must be implemented,” said Mr Fernando. | |
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