South Africa’s pay gap is set long before salary talks begin, research finds

New research using administrative tax records finds women in South Africa earn 12% less than men on average, with a large part of that difference tied to where women work rather than just pay within firms.

How the gap is built before pay is compared

Researchers who tracked millions of formal-sector workers over eight years reported that women’s average earnings were 12% lower than men’s. About 45% of that gap was associated with women being concentrated in lower-paying companies; the remaining 55% likely reflects unmeasured worker differences and broader labour-market bias rather than direct within-firm discrimination.

Three stacked divisions: sector, occupation and employer

The analysis says the earnings divide works across industry, occupation and employer. Women are overrepresented in lower-premium sectors such as education, retail and personal care, while men dominate higher-paying areas including construction, mining and manufacturing. Professor Linda Meyer described the effect as cumulative:

“These divisions do not operate in isolation. Layered together, sector, occupation and employer can place workers on sharply different earnings paths, allowing disadvantage to accumulate from one level to the next.”

Occupational segregation

StatsSA data for the second quarter of 2026 highlights occupational splits: clerical work accounted for 17% of employed women versus 5.8% of men, and domestic work comprised 10.8% of women versus 0.5% of men. Managerial roles were held by 7.1% of women compared with 10% of men. A separate StatsSA analysis published in August confirmed women held 44% of national jobs but were underrepresented in transport, storage and the motor trade.

Barriers before and during working life

Labour-force figures show only 7.3 million of South Africa’s 21.3 million working-age women were employed in Q2 2026. Female labour-force participation stood at 54.9%, compared with 64.4% for men. The employer pay gap widened notably between workers’ mid-20s and mid-40s, the research found.

Although women changed jobs as often as men, they were less likely to move to better-paying companies. That pattern coincides with child-rearing years; StatsSA reports women made up 88.2% of the 2.4 million people outside the labour force because of care responsibilities, a factor the report says restricts earning potential and job options.

Education and career pathways

The research notes educational choices also shape paths into different occupations. While women are the majority of post-school students, men still outnumber women among graduates in physical sciences, engineering and manufacturingfields linked to higher-paying industries. As Professor Meyer put it:

“Education alone doesn’t determine pay, but different fields of study open different occupational pathways. The labour-market divide is shaped by a series of connected pressures, not one free and isolated decision about which job to accept.”

What would narrow the divide?

Analysts argue that equal-pay laws remain necessary but insufficient. Employer-level remedies such as pay transparency and regular pay audits can reveal internal inequalities, but they cannot on their own help women enter higher-paying industries or companies. The research and accompanying commentary recommend measures including:

• childcare support
• flexible work arrangements without pay penalties
• fairer recruitment practices
• stronger pathways into premium sectors

The central conclusion: equal pay should be assessed not only by side-by-side salary comparisons but by whether women have equal opportunity to enter and advance in the better-paid parts of the economy. Until both unfair pay differences and the structural barriers that channel workers into lower-paying companies are addressed, women will continue negotiating salaries from a position of constrained earning potential.