Singapore might be in the news in recent years for the right reasons.
A booming tourism industry, a haven for startups and technology companies, and a flourishing arts and culture scene. However, all is not so well in the Lion City.
According to the Comprehensive Labour Force Survey conducted by the Manpower Research and Statistics Department of Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in collaboration with the National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore's adjusted gender pay gap (GPG) is at six percent.
While you might be shaking your head going, "Only six percent, so what?" Well, this is the lowest GPG has been in the past 16 years for Singapore.
Hold up, what is a GPG?
GPG is a measuring tool to calculate the difference in salary between a male and female professional. In a more fancier term, the GPG is used to estimate the gender income inequality in companies and countries.
There are two ways to measure it. The first is to take into account an individual's industry, occupation, education level, and age. This would give you the adjusted GPG.
Unadjusted GPG on the other hand doesn't take into account the above information and is less comprehensive. Singapore's statistics are much lower, at 16.3 percent when it comes to measuring the median salary of full-time workers.
The Comprehensive Labour Force Survey data was made possible after studying 33,000 households nationwide in 2018.
Women are still underpaid.
According to the survey, women earn lesser than their male counterparts. This despite the employment rate among women rising in the last 10 years.
Male professionals still hold on to higher-earning jobs while women are seen to be in the lower income ones.
Interestingly, there are several factors that could contribute to these figures but can't be measured using data alone.
MOM says factors such as parenthood, parenting and caregiving responsibilities, job scopes, and work experiences played a role.
Then there's also the fact that men typically moved to jobs that are "traditionally male" such as mechanical engineering and IT due to its lucrative growth in income. Women who apply to become office clerks or administrative managers are generally paid less.
Then there's also the factor that women opt to work on jobs that are flexible but offer lower pay because they need to take care of their family and little ones.
Should Singapore be concerned?
Yes and no.
If Singapore is to compare itself with other developed nations such as the U.S. and Canada who have an adjusted GPG of eight percent, higher than Singapore's, then it shouldn't be.
In fact, it did pretty impressively against China's adjusted GPG of 18.3 percent.
However, despite these impressive figures, there is still gender discrimination practiced in the Lion City.
Thankfully, something is being done about it. According to Mothership.sg, there have been several initiatives rolled out to hire more women in the IT and mechanical engineering field.
Meanwhile, MOM has pledged that it will take stern action against employers who discriminate their employees by gender.
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Cover image sourced from TODAYonline.
