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  • 10 months ago
There is no evidence to suggest a gender pay gap in T&T, at least not in the public sector. This was the information brought to the Joint Select Committee on Human Rights, Equality and Diversity on Friday, however the Committee Chairman believes more in-depth research should be done. Rynessa Cutting reports.

Transcript
00:00Is there equality in pay for men and women in Trinidad and Tobago?
00:05According to the Equal Opportunities Commission, the answer is yes.
00:09In the public sector where remuneration is standardised by the CPO
00:14or where there is a collective bargaining process,
00:17you tend to find that there isn't much gender pay disparity between men and women.
00:21Certainly not in any ministry or in any department of the central government.
00:27If there is a disparity, it may be accounted for by other factors
00:30such as maybe one is senior to the other so they get a higher level of increments
00:35or maybe there's some travelling attached to the position so that they get a travelling allowance.
00:39In fact, data from 2016 to 2022 paint an interesting picture.
00:44Quoted from this year, so we reveal that males were earning 27% more
00:50than their female colleagues in state enterprises.
00:55The variance between male and female workers in the government,
00:58public service and statutory boards was relatively lower
01:02to that of both the private sector and government state enterprises.
01:06The data showed that the average wage gap from 2016 to 2019
01:10for employees in the government, public service and statutory boards was 6%,
01:16indicating that males earned an average of 6% more than their female counterparts.
01:22Now that was then.
01:24However, from 2020 to 2022, the data showed a reversal in the trend
01:31with females earning 3% more than their male counterparts.
01:37Based on the data available, however, there is significant gender pay disparity
01:42among industries, sectors and job categories,
01:45many of which are typically deemed male or female jobs.
01:50We looked at the unadjusted wage gap.
01:53So if the values favour men, this suggests that in the upper end of the organization
02:02or top management, there are more men employed.
02:08Whereas if it favours women, it suggests that more women are employed
02:14in the upper levels of the organization.
02:18So it does not mean that men and women are earning different pay for the same job.
02:24It simply means that more men or more women are employed in the upper end.
02:31If you take the public service, for example, in most of the ministries,
02:36the permanent secretaries are female.
02:39However, the committee believes that equal work for equal pay
02:42should be the focus of research exercises.
02:46Meantime, one committee member issued a call for research
02:49on the policies geared toward equity more so than equality.
02:53In terms of equitable access, you will widen the space for discussion.
02:58So that's why I asked to what extent is gender consideration
03:01or the unique needs of the particular genders in terms of beyond maternity leave,
03:10in terms of childcare, and how are we creating a future world of work
03:16that considers that half of the workforce have this opportunity
03:21or space where you may be out of the work space for different reasons.
03:26The need for increased paternity leave was also reiterated.
03:30A study is to be done on the private sector.
03:34Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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