The Saudi Shoura Council has approved a recommendation to narrow the widening salary gap between men and women holding the same roles in the job market, a council member confirmed to Zawya.

Two female members of Saudi Arabia's Shoura Council, Dr. Mody AlKhalaf and Dr. Latifah Ashaalan, had made the recommendation to the council to address the issue of the growing gender pay gap in the Saudi workforce.

This development is in line with a wider push by Saudi authorities to improve women’s rights and increase female participation in the economy, with women set to get behind the wheel next month as a ban on females driving is listed, and a long list of females take up senior roles in government and business entities.

“The recommendation is approved (by the Saudi Shoura Council) and the implementation depends on Ministry (of Labour and Social Development)… but we should start seeing effects soon,” Alkhalaf told Zawya by email.

A detailed document of the recommendation obtained by Zawya urged the Ministry of Labour and Social Development to increase its regulatory role over private sector firms to bridge the wage gap between male and female workers for work of equal value.

“The gender wage gap in the kingdom has been increasing rapidly rising by near-threefold between 2014 and 2016, rising from 324 Saudi riyals to 1,077 riyals,” the document said, citing data from the King Khalid Foundation – a philanthropic organisation which carries out social and economic development research and projects in the kingdom.

The document added that 21 percent of families registered for the Saudi Citizens Account, a government programme that compensates low-to-middle income Saudi families for increases in the cost of living, have women as the main breadwinner.

Families that have men as the main breadwinner typically report higher levels of household spending – by around 6,000 riyals per month, the document submitted to the Shoura Council said. (Read more here).

“Poverty is also more prevalent among women in Saudi than men, with near 120 to 160 poor women for every 100 poor men,” it added, citing data from the foundation.

Official figures released earlier this month by the Saudi General Authority of Statistics showed a widening gap between male and female pay in the labour market.

While the average monthly wage for male Saudis rose by 27 riyals quarter-on-quarter to 10,160 riyals in the fourth quarter of 2017, their female counterparts saw their average monthly wage drop by 445 riyals to 9,440 riyals over the same period. This meant the gender pay gap increased to 1,165 riyals, up 68 percent on the previous quarter. (Read more here).

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2017, Saudi Arabia ranks lowest among the Gulf countries and 107th worldwide in the global index in terms of wage equality between genders for similar work.

The report notes that although Saudi Arabia re-closed its gender gap in terms of enrolment in primary education and witnessed some progress in gender parity for technical and professional workers, it saw a modest decrease in pay equality for similar work and females’ share of earned wages. (Read more here).

(Reporting by Nada Al Rifai; Editing by Michael Fahy)

(nada.rifai@thomsonreuters.com)

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