It’s International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8 and the theme this year is #EachforEqual as the IWD website states that “gender equality is essential for economies and communities to thrive”.
In Singapore, the gender pay gap improves to 6% in 2018 from 8.8% in 2002 but higher-paying roles tend to be male dominated, reported The Straits Times.
According to a study release in January this year, the unadjusted median monthly salary of a woman in full-time work was 16.3 per cent less than that of her male counterpart in 2018, a slightly larger gap than 16 per cent in 2002.
The employment rate among women reportedly rose from 62.2 per cent to 78 per cent over the period and more women are now in professional, manager, executive and technician occupations.
But higher-paying roles such as company heads, and software developers and analysts, are still male dominated. Women tend to be in lower-paying roles, such as general office clerks and human resource officers. This divergence is called occupational segregation.
Here, we revisit the topic of gender pay gap and suggest reasons why women deserve to be paid the same, or more, than men, according to The Singapore Women’s Weekly.