The Women Gender Wage Gap in the Zambia

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By Sanday Chongo Kabange

Zambia, like many countries around the world, continues to face various social challenges. Women for example, continue to be victims of the country's harsh economic realities.

With a population of 12 million, 400, 000 of Zambia’s citizens are in formal, pensionable employment and the majority of these are male, according a Central Statistical Survey.

While gender activists have mounted various campaigns to balance the gender scale in the southern African state, they are most often met with resistance when it comes to address the salary or wage disparate between women and men.

Salary differences

The problem of salary differences between women and men in Zambia is a known factor that has received little or no attention in both the private and public sectors. Part of the Zambian Labour Laws states that no person shall be discriminated against on basis of race, gender, colour or religion. But this law has been flouted, mostly due to lack of stringent implementation measures.

It is a known fact that of the 400,000 in formal, pensionable employment in Zambia, the majority of the women get lower salaries than their male counterparts. For example, a female accountant is likely to get as much as twice less than a male accountant with similar qualifications.

Women are "vulnerable by nature" says Derrick Sinjela, a labour and gender consultant. Sinjela says on a national level, a female government officer is likely to receive a lower wage than her male counterpart because of her gender status. In Zambian society, women are regarded as people who cannot do white collar jobs or challenging assignments. This has lead to the disparity. Sinjela explains that even during recruitment, women are usually hired because they are willing to take up any job offer at a negotiated price, while men can turn down job offers if they are not satisfied with the conditions of service, including salaries.

Paid in kind

Another reason why Zambian women are underpaid, even if they have high academic and professional qualifications, is that during community service projects, project implementers are likely to consider paying women in kind with items such as cooking oil, food and blankets while men are given money for their role. One community project that was running in Zambia's capital city, Lusaka (but has since concluded business), indicated that women workers would work for food while males would be paid money. The said project had an initial item it called "Food for Work”. This project was for both women and men. Women were given a bag of grain meal, one litre of cooking oil, one kiliogramme of salt and a tablet of soap. On the other hand, men were paid 25, 000 Kwacha (US $5). This is despite both men and women undertaking similar tasks at the project.

These are some of the many socio-economic challenges that Zambian women are still facing, 44 years after the country attained its independence from Britain. Several campaigns have been held concerning such gender inequalities but authorities have responded merely by referring to "non discriminatory labour laws".

Derrick Sinjela calls for serious adherence and implementation of the country's labour act.

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