The Covid-19 pandemic, which has prompted companies to place greater emphasis on their social responsibilities, may give companies the impetus to address gender and other inequalities, reports advisory firm PwC.
The report issued on Tuesday came as the country observes women’s month honouring women who marched against the pass laws 64 years ago. It paints a picture of pronounced gender inequality in the corporate sector with only 6% of listed companies having female CEOs.
“Faced with Covid-19, trends that we thought were maybe three years out have been accelerated, and now they’re sitting on our doorstep,” Leila Ebrahimi, director in PwC’s people and organisation department, said in the report. “So we’re saying that organisations [that] are not talking about these issues and putting them on the agenda are going to find themselves left behind or worse,” Ebrahimi said.
According to the report, women account for less than a fifth of executive directors in JSE-listed companies at 14%. The lack of representation is even more stark at CEO level, with only 19 women. Women were also a minority on boards and were vastly underpaid compared with their male counterparts.
Lack of wider and mandated reporting on the pay of men and women in SA, unlike in other countries such as the UK, made full analysis difficult, PwC said. Based on International Labour Organisation 2017 data showing a gender gap of 29%-30%, the country lagged behind the global average of about 20%.
Coronavirus wreaking havoc in the economy also put the spotlight on gender inequality. A study in July, the Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (Cram), showed that women accounted for a third of the 3-million jobs lost between February and April.
“Within the reporting framework in SA, there is a renewed focus on transparency and improved disclosure," PwC said. "However, very few companies make disclosures in their integrated reports that set out the gender pay gap and the steps they are taking to close the gaps, and reiterate that diversity and gender pay inequality remains a focus area,” the report said.
PwC's report, which also looked at the UK's FTSE 100 and FTSE 250, as well as a number of African stock exchanges, also examined pay gaps more broadly, as well as racial inequality in senior positions.
The median pay for JSE CEOs in 2019 for 30 April 2019 to 29 February 2020 was R5.2m, which translated to 66 times more than the lowest paid workers. PwC said the ideal ratio, based on global standards, was between 20:1 and 25:1
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