01. Access to Equitable Employment and Equal Pay
How does this Building Block manifest in the workplace and the supply chain?
This Building Block relates to decent work and whether workers have access to work that is productive, that delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for all, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.
Women are more likely than men to be unemployed, self-employed, or to work in informal employment, and are therefore less likely to have access to health care, pensions, or earn a regular wage. The gender wage gap, i.e, the difference between the average earnings of men and women, continues to be a stubborn problem, owing to the systemic undervaluation of women’s work due to a variety of reasons including but not limited to education, gaps in employment, lack of women in leadership roles, working hours, etc. This is intimately tied to the overrepresentation of women in lower-paying occupations despite some advances in career growth opportunities. Furthermore, women must also contend with routine discrimination at the workplace. A hostile work environment undermines the efforts towards equality and reinforces stereotypes about women’s work, thereby limiting their opportunities and decision-making abilities. Women employees may experience extreme duress owing to discrimination as they may feel emotionally overwhelmed and isolated from their co-workers.
Therefore organizations must strive towards realizing these goals to ensure that women are treated as equals within the workplace. To encourage women’s economic participation and empowerment, ensuring equitable practices within the organization is crucial. Boosting diversity and gender equity can also improve the overall health of an organization. For striving to achieve this organizations may need to revisit and reconsider their terms of employment, essential amenities and work culture to challenge any existing biases and discriminatory practices.
How could your organization promote Equitable Employment and Equal Pay?
Ensure equal opportunities and treatment of all, i.e. by including no discrimination principles in your organization’s policies and (hiring) procedures. This includes ensuring that training and career advancement programmes are available to all.
Making equitable salary offers to men and women.
Basing pay on the position itself rather than previous pay of the employee as the latter perpetuates the gender pay gap.
Undertaking a gender pay review in the enterprise to assess whether there is a gender pay gap and to what extent – conducting regular pay reviews can help a company keep on top of any discrepancies.
Making jobs more flexible so that more women access higher-level jobs and, therefore, higher pay.
Ensuring that unconscious gender bias does not affect performance reviews.
Selecting and applying a job evaluation methodology to assess the skills and responsibilities of the various jobs in the enterprise with a view to adjust job titles, contents and corresponding pay overtime.
Benchmark a minimum wage for all positions within the organization
Provide technical training to women in nontraditional fields where they may not have adequate experience to perform their role effectively.
Protection from micro-aggressions within the workplace that are commonly experienced by women due to their intersectional identities.
Providing pathways for behavioural change among employees which is an important pillar for inclusion of women employees in an organisation is through training and mentoring employees in gender sensitisation so that they may be made aware of non-discriminatory practices to be followed within the workplace.
Introduction of zero tolerance policies to firmly establish behaviours that will not be tolerated within the organization.
What questions should your organization ask itself to promote equitable employment and equal pay?
- How are our biases or company pressures influencing how we understand equitable employment and equal pay?
- How can we confirm that our plan to value and compensate women workers is appropriate and culturally sensitive?
- How is our recruitment and engagement designed to be inclusive?