Closing the gender pay gap requires moving beyond annual statistical reporting and addressing the underlying remuneration structures that create inequality in the first place.
This is according to Lindiwe Sebesho, master reward specialist and executive committee member of the South African Reward Association.
The pay gap is rarely the result of a single policy or employer practice. Instead, it stems from the cumulative effect of decisions made throughout an employee’s career lifecycle, including those based on job grading, pay band placement, initial salary offers, annual increases, performance assessments, and incentive allocations.
The compounding career impact
The visible fixed salary gap represents only a fraction of a broader economic challenge. In South Africa, persistent gender disparities in workforce participation, unemployment, and executive representation continue to impact long-term financial security for women.
“If two employees start at the same time in comparable roles, but one enters lower in the pay band, receives smaller increases or misses a bonus cycle during a career break, the difference can compound over time,” explains Sebesho. “It directly affects future salary adjustments, incentive values, retirement savings because many reward elements are calculated as a percentage of fixed salary or are strongly influenced by it.”
Under-representation in senior leadership further restricts access to long-term share schemes where substantial wealth can be generated. Without structural interventions, these compounding factors naturally widen the long term savings gap facing female workers later in life.
Shifting the conversation from ‘gap to power’
Awareness alone will not close the gap. Meaningful progress depends on equipping every level of the organisation with the financial and reward literacy needed to understand, question and improve the pay systems and decisions that shape long-term economic outcomes:
Employees need the practical knowledge to evaluate pay packages, understand where they sit within pay bands and engage in all aspects of total reward from an informed position. Line managers, in turn, need clear policy frameworks, decision-making principles and access to up to date, accurate and relevant pay data to apply remuneration decisions fairly and consistently, rather than defaulting to historical salary information that may perpetuate legacy inequities.
Further, HR and reward professionals should regularly review reward structures to identify and address systemic barriers to equity, while executive leadership and boards must recognise pay equity as both a governance priority and a key indicator of organisational health.
“Pay transparency without reward literacy risks becoming a headline figure that we report every year rather than a catalyst for change,” warns Sebesho. “Employees, managers, leaders and governance committees need to understand what sits behind the numbers e.g. how roles are evaluated, how pay ranges are determined and applied, how incentives are calculated and how pay decisions made today can shape long-term earning power, financial security and wealth creation.”
Engaging all genders in system redesign
Addressing structural remuneration gaps requires participation across the workforce. By positioning pay literacy as a universal business capability, organisations can engage all role players, rather than treating equity as a standalone initiative or a challenge that affects women for them to resolve alone.
Lasting progress will therefore require employers to embed structured, evidence-based reward policies and practices across the employee lifecycle. This includes objective job evaluation, regular pay audits, transparent incentive criteria and principles that protect bonus eligibility and career progression during parental or caregiving leave.
“Workplace fairness should not depend on who negotiates hardest or who has better access to and understanding of pay information,” Sebesho concludes. “The real opportunity is to move beyond annual reporting and redesign reward systems so that equal contribution, capability and performance are recognised consistently at every stage of a career. That is how organisations turn pay transparency into measurable progress for the benefit of all genders.”