The issue surrounding salary discrepancies in the workplace needs to be taken seriously, the Commission on Gender Equality (CGE) said on Wednesday.
The commission was responding to reports indicating that women are still being paid lower salaries than their male colleagues.
What struck a cord was a report that the media is among the defaulters.
”This raises all sorts of questions … especially in regard to the media, which is supposed to be the mouthpiece of the masses,” CGE deputy chairperson Bafana Khumalo said during a media briefing in Midrand after the CGE had met to introduce their new commissioners.
A gender audit by the South African National Editors’ Forum found that white male journalists were paid more and held more top positions in South Africa’s newsrooms than black women, who were furthest down the ladder.
The Glass Ceiling Two study of nine media houses found that black women tended to earn 25% less than white men and accounted for a ”mere” 6% of newsroom top and senior management.
This, according to the CGE, is among issues they are striving to rectify within South African society.
The commission urged people to report issues such as these to their offices situated in all nine provinces.
The CGE is expected to swear in their newly elected members later on Wednesday before celebrating the awarding of the Order of the Baobab to their chairperson, Joyce Piliso-Seroke. — Sapa