Gender wage discrimination in south Africa within the affirmative action framework

Abstract

The issue of gender wage discrimination and women empowerment has gained a greater deal of international attention. However, gender-based discrimination persists worldwide, depriving women of their basic rights and opportunities. Affirmative action policies have been adopted by many countries around the world as a means to address these inequalities in employment and education while promoting diversity, and redressing historical wrongdoings. Despite some progress made worldwide, however, gender wage disparities remain particularly high in South Africa. Hence, the question remains about whether these affirmative action measures have yet to achieve their intended effects. This study investigates the trends in gender wage disparities by occupation before and after the introduction of affirmative action measures. By conducting an empirical analysis within the South African context, we examine gender wage discrimination within the Affirmative Action Framework by employing a Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition model for the years 1997 and 2015, the period for which data are available. The results of the kernel density function, OLS regression and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition analyses show that the current gender wage gap present between males and females at different occupational levels in South Africa has declined. This surprising result should, however, not entirely be interpreted as a decline in discrimination per se, but also an increase in the productive characteristics of females over time. Although we cannot pin it down to the affirmative action policy entirely, there are some signs to suggest that the affirmative action policy might have played a role in narrowing the gender wage gap by increasing the productive characteristics of women in specific ways.