Gender pay gap exists in Malaysia. According to
the Statistics Department (DOSM)’s Salaries & Wages Survey Report Malaysia
2018, the average Malaysian male employee had a
median salary of RM2,342 a month while women made RM2,227 in 2018. (Do not
confuse gender pay gap with equal pay issue. Gender pay gap is the difference
between the median wage for men and the median wage for women. In
contrast, the equal pay issue is one of discrimination: paying men and women
different amounts for doing the same job.)
The pay gap in 2018 in Malaysia ranged between
7.1% and 34.9% as follows:
Women
in Malaysia excelled in professional fields: 67.9% of dentists; 52.6% of
lawyers; 52.6% of accountants; 51.9% of medical doctors and 47.3% of veterinary
surgeons in Malaysia are women. This is according to the Department of
Statistics Malaysia and applies for the period 2016 and 2017. However, their
wages are still lower than their male counterparts, 15% lower for professionals
and 20.3% lower for managers. The gap is even wider when it comes to low-paying
jobs such as craft and related trades workers (34.9%).
Note: Data as of 31st December 2017
Source: Planning, Research and Policy Coordination Division,
Higher Education Sector, MOE
What
widens the gender pay gap?
Education?
No, not really. In 2017, more than half (65%) of public university graduates in
Malaysia were women. With the exception of engineering, all the courses above were
female-denominated.
Harvard
economics research Valentin Bolotnyy (2018) found that today’s pay gap is a
result of how workplace flexibility interacts with people’s personal life
preferences and constraints. As men and women make different choices about how
to spend their time, workplace inflexibility harms women most.
Another
possible reason for the mismatch is probably lesser leadership positions were
offered to women. This could be due to the long hours for high-paying senior jobs
and the gendered family responsibilities. Senior jobs usually require long
hours and constant availability. In Malaysia, nearly 60% of part-timers are
women. And according to the Labour Force Survey Report 2016, 32.3% of women who
work part-time do so because of family responsibilities. Without sufficient
workplace experience, women get lesser promotion opportunities. This perhaps is
one of the reasons why majority of the senior roles today are men.
In
the U.S., men tend to work longer hours, took on more last-minute shifts, and
arranged schedules to secure 83% more overtime hours per year. Women,
meanwhile, took more unpaid time off through the Family Medical Leave Act,
accepted fewer last-minute overtime hours, and avoided weekend and holiday
shifts. It wasn’t that women weren’t willing to work overtime, but that women
value time and flexibility more than men.
What
are the solutions?
To
narrow the gender pay gap, policies that allow both parents to balance work and
family are needed. This can be achieved by adding more workplace flexibility,
not only to junior roles but to all levels. Employers should redesign the roles
and working hours for their employees. Responsibilities at home should be
shared equally by both parents. In some countries, fathers were given
“daddy-only” leave to encourage them to spend more time with the families and to
share daily housework. Social support such as childcare subsidies to a family
could help women to return back to work.
In
short, although it might be challenging, government and employers should work
hard in achieving gender parity in order to let everyone understand: women’s
work (both at home and workplace) is as valuable as men’s!
Reference:
1.
Report Shows That Gender Pay Gap Exists In Malaysia And It's Pretty Bad,
RojakDaily, 25 Nov 2019
2.
Bolotnyy, V. (2018), Why Do Women Earn Less Than Men? Evidence from Bus and
Train Operators∗
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