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Plea for pay equity

CAPRI lobbies for online access to public-sector salaries; wants publicly listed companies to disclose wage scales

Published:Thursday | February 9, 2023 | 1:47 AMKimone Francis/Senior Staff Reporter
Two female workers are seen on the Spanish Town Hospital compound on Wednesday. CAPRI, in its report titled 'Fair Pay', is pushing for transparency in salary scales to bridge the gender gap.
Two female workers are seen on the Spanish Town Hospital compound on Wednesday. CAPRI, in its report titled 'Fair Pay', is pushing for transparency in salary scales to bridge the gender gap.

The Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) has called for easier public access to government salary scales and for publicly listed companies to disclose their own wage bands. That move, the think tank says, would help bridge the pay gap...

The Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) has called for easier public access to government salary scales and for publicly listed companies to disclose their own wage bands.

That move, the think tank says, would help bridge the pay gap between men and women and shield the vulnerable from socio-economic disadvantages.

The CAPRI report, titled Fair Pay, concluded that women are poorer than men in Jamaica, with the purchasing power parity for female per-capita income at US$6,729 compared to US$11,044 for males.

That means Jamaican women, on average, earn 61 cents for every dollar earned by men.

The report said that women are more likely to be in vulnerable forms of employment and less likely to be in leadership positions, situations that both present an economic disadvantage to women.

“The gender wage gap in Jamaica is a barrier to women’s empowerment. It is one of several, but its impact is far-reaching and negative on multiple fronts,” the report, published Wednesday evening, concluded.

The report said the disparity had broader consequences, especially in single female-headed homes, with children suffering from reduced access to resources.

The upshot: a wider societal burden that hinders productivity and economic growth.

CAPRI has recommended that the Ministry of Finance establish an online database that publicly displays all salaries of public-sector posts.

The public-policy think tank has said that the website should be easy to access, user-friendly, and the data updated regularly. It said that the database should be regularly audited to ensure accuracy and reliability of the information.

CAPRI also recommended that the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) include in its governance index a mandate that publicly listed companies be required to make known their salary scales.

But Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke has indicated that the salary scales for all jobs in the central government are published in the Establishment Order tabled annually in Parliament.

He said that a new Establishment Order that covers the compensation restructuring, which has so far been implemented, will be tabled shortly and will again be updated in the new financial year.

“To improve accessibility of this information, the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service (MOFPS) will also upload the central government salary scales, inclusive of the information in the Establishment Order, to the MOFPS website,” Clarke said Wednesday.

He declined to comment on possible legislative policy for the private sector.

Managing director of the JSE, Dr Marlene Street Forrest, did not respond, up to press time, to The Gleaner’s request for comment on the recommendation.

Meanwhile, Opposition Senator Donna Scott Mottley has said that the People’s National Party (PNP) has long advocated for gender equality, including equal pay for equal work.

“In Jamaica, where approximately 47 per cent of single-parent households are headed by women and the country boasts the highest percentage of women as middle managers in the world, proper remuneration, which equates to a level playing field with male counterparts, is critical,” she said.

“To do otherwise is unfair, unjust, and exploitative. I subscribe to the principle of transparency in this regard and unhesitatingly support the proposal that the scale of salaries in the public and private sector should be made public.”

Government Senator Natalie Campbell Rodriques said that she, too, backs the proposal. However, she doubted that wide-scale publication of salaries for publicly listed companies would happen without legislative muscle.

“All efforts are needed to close the wage gap across genders,” she said, noting that the wage gap was most pronounced in the private sector.

She said, also, that the recommendation for the finance ministry to publish salaries is not an issue because they are accessible.

Government Senator Dr Saphire Longmore called the data presented in the report “concerning”.

She said that it was “unfortunate” that a significant number of women are second-tier managers and not at the helm of many industries.

Longmore also noted a “significant lack of reflection” of the compensation for women in terms of the equity they put in the care economy.

“Unfortunately, when you have an individual who is balancing both situations, it comes with much personal stress and much personal loss. And to recognise that on one side of the equation, they tend to be pulling more weight and [are] compensated less is adding more inequality to the situation,” said Longmore.

Hinting that the issue should be on the agenda of the newly established women’s parliamentary caucus, Longmore, however, harbours reservations about private incomes being publicly accessible.

“I think probably there needs to be a regular review of salaries and maybe an organisation or a unit established to do that,” she said.

Economist Keenan Falconer believes that it would be difficult to legislate the publication of private-sector salaries.

He said that moral suasion might be a more effective prompt.

However, Falconer said that once companies are publicly listed and society, at large, has an interest, the publication of those salaries should not be controversial.

“When it comes to the labour market and labour market dynamics, the more information, the better. It usually leads to more positive outcomes in terms of less adverse selections and less asymmetrical information outcomes,” he said.

“So publishing that sort of data can’t be disadvantageous to companies unless it’s a case where they are withholding this information to maintain some sort of competitive advantage.”

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com