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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